Chapter 4: Why Me?

"No."

Emma's voice barely rose above a whisper.

Nathan didn't respond.

She looked back at the document in her hands, convinced she had misunderstood what she'd read.

She hadn't.

Every word remained exactly the same.

...Mr. Ethan Kingsley formally requests that Miss Emma Bennett be offered the opportunity...

Her name. Not Olivia's. Hers.

She looked up slowly.

"There has to be a mistake."

"There isn't," Nathan replied.

"I've never met Ethan Kingsley."

"I understand why you'd think that."

Emma frowned.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

Nathan didn't answer. Instead, he glanced at his watch.

"Mr. Kingsley dislikes keeping people waiting."

Emma's patience snapped.

"And I dislike strangers planning my life."

Her words echoed through the suite.

For the first time, Nathan looked almost amused.

"A reasonable response."

"Then tell your boss the answer is no."

Richard suddenly stood.

"Emma."

She turned.

"No?"

His face had lost what little color it had left.

"You haven't heard everything."

"I don't need to."

"You do."

She stared at him.

"What else could possibly matter?"

Richard hesitated. For several painful seconds, he simply looked at the floor.

When he finally spoke, his voice sounded twenty years older.

"If this wedding doesn't happen, Bennett Development is finished."

The floor seemed to tilt under her.

"What?"

Nathan quietly stepped toward the windows, giving them the illusion of privacy.

Richard rubbed both hands over his face.

"I was going to tell you after the honeymoon."

"Dad..."

"I didn't want either of you worrying."

"Dad."

He looked at her with defeated eyes.

"I've been bleeding money for three years, Emma. I just didn't want you to see the blood."

Silence.

Emma tried to process what she was hearing.

Her father had built Bennett Development from a single rented office into one of New York's respected boutique real estate firms.

She had grown up believing he could solve anything.

Now he looked like a man drowning.

"What does Ethan have to do with this?" she asked quietly.

Richard closed his eyes.

"The merger."

Emma frowned.

"What merger?"

Nathan answered this time.

"The wedding was more than a wedding. It was the public announcement of Kingsley Global's acquisition of Bennett Development. The legal documents are prepared. The investors are present. The press release has already been scheduled."

Every sentence tightened the knot in her stomach.

"If today's ceremony is canceled, the acquisition dies with it."

Emma looked back at her father.

"You were selling the company?"

"I was saving it."

"You never told us."

"I couldn't."

"You let Olivia marry a man because of a business deal?"

Richard's expression crumpled.

"It wasn't like that."

"Then what was it like?"

He couldn't answer.

The silence answered for him.

Emma took a slow step backward.

Everything she'd believed about the engagement suddenly looked different.

The lavish engagement party. The magazine interviews. The expensive destination photo shoot.

Had any of it been real? Or had they all been actors in a business arrangement?

Her eyes drifted back to Nathan.

"Ethan agreed to this?"

"Mr. Kingsley agreed to acquire Bennett Development."

"And my sister?"

"He agreed to marry Miss Olivia."

Emma let out a hollow laugh.

"Those are not the same thing."

Nathan's expression didn't change.

"No."

"They shouldn't even be in the same sentence."

"I don't disagree."

Something about that answer unsettled her more than a defense would have. Nathan wasn't protecting his employer. He was simply agreeing, like a man reading a verdict he hadn't written.

A buzzing sound broke the silence.

Richard looked down at his phone.

His face tightened.

"It's Ethan."

Emma instinctively looked toward Nathan.

Nathan gave a single nod.

"You should answer."

Richard hesitated before pressing the speaker button.

"Mr. Kingsley."

The line remained silent for two long seconds.

Then a deep male voice filled the room. Calm. Controlled.

"So."

One word. Nothing more.

Yet every person in the suite straightened instinctively.

Even through a phone speaker, Ethan Kingsley had a presence that was impossible to ignore.

Richard cleared his throat.

"Ethan... I—"

"Has Olivia contacted you?"

"No."

A brief silence.

"I expected as much."

Emma went very still.

Expected?

Richard looked confused.

"I'm... sorry."

"Don't be."

No anger. No accusation. Just certainty.

Then Ethan asked a question that made Emma's heart stop.

"Is Emma there?"

Every eye in the room turned toward her.

"...Yes."

Another silence.

Then Ethan spoke again, his voice quieter now. Almost thoughtful.

"Put her on the phone."

Emma stared at the device in her father's trembling hand.

She had never met Ethan Kingsley. She had never spoken to him.

But somewhere beneath the anger and confusion, something cold and certain settled into her chest.

He knows something about me that I haven't told anyone in this room.

She had no idea yet how right she was.