CHAPTER 4

SCARLETT FOSTER

The heavy rain outside matched the stormy atmosphere inside the back seat of the Maybach.

It was nearly eleven in the evening. The high-stakes dinner with Montgomery Enterprises’ overseas investors had been an absolute minefield, but we survived it. I spent the entire night seamlessly managing Caleb’s schedule, pulling up financial statistics at a moment's notice, and intercepting passive-aggressive remarks from greedy board members.

Caleb had played the role of the sharp, ruthless CEO flawlessly. But now, as the car navigated through the rain-slicked streets of the city, the powerful corporate titan looked thoroughly exhausted.

He sat beside me, his tie completely discarded, the top three buttons of his crisp white dress shirt unbuttoned. He leaned his head back against the leather headrest, his dark eyes fixed on the rain streaming down the tinted window.

I kept my body pressed against the passenger door, keeping as much space between us as possible. My fingers tightly gripped the tablet in my lap. I was running on four hours of sleep, running on pure adrenaline, and running out of emotional strength to keep my wall up.

"You did well tonight," Caleb broke the silence, his voice low and raspy from talking all evening. "The board members were impressed by your preparation."

"I was just doing my job, Mr. Montgomery," I replied, keeping my eyes fixed straight ahead.

A heavy sigh escaped his lips. "We're alone, Scarlett. You don't have to call me that."

"It's better if I do. Boundaries keep things simple."

"Nothing about us has ever been simple," he murmured softly.

The car suddenly jolted to a halt. Up ahead, red brake lights stretched as far as the eye could see. Construction barricades and police cruisers blocked the highway, redirecting traffic toward a single lane due to heavy flooding on the main avenue.

"Looks like a major bottleneck, Mr. Montgomery," the driver called out from behind the privacy glass. "We're going to be stuck here for at least an hour."

Caleb pressed the intercom button. "Take the side route through the old financial district. Park near the harbor overlook until the traffic clears."

"Understood, sir."

Ten minutes later, the luxury sedan pulled into a quiet, covered lookout point over the bay. The city lights flickered across the dark water, distorted by the torrential downpour outside. The driver politely excused himself to wait under the awning of a nearby diner, leaving the two of us trapped together in the quiet cabin of the car.

The silence grew heavier by the second. It wasn't the awkward silence of strangers, but the suffocating quiet of two people carrying five years worth of unsaid truths.

"Why this spot?" I asked before I could stop myself.

Caleb turned his head to look at me, his gray eyes catching the faint golden light of the streetlamps outside. "You don't remember?"

My chest tightened. Of course I remembered. This was where we used to come five years ago when we had no money, sharing a cheap takeout box and dreaming about a future that never happened.

"I choose to forget," I said coldly, turning away. "Living in the past is dangerous, Caleb. Especially when the past was built on lies."

"I never lied to you, Scarlett."

"You left!" I snapped, turning back to face him, the frustration boiling over. "You walked out of our apartment one random Tuesday morning while I was at work! You left your keys on the counter, cut off your phone line, and vanished! You didn't leave a note. You didn't give me a reason. I spent months thinking you were dead, or worse, that I wasn't enough for you! So don't sit there in your million-dollar suit and tell me you didn't lie to me."

Caleb didn't yell back. He didn't get defensive. He just sat there, taking every harsh word, his face pale and his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles working under his skin.

"Do you really think I wanted to leave?" he whispered, his voice cracking with a raw, jagged edge I had never heard from him before.

"Actions speak louder than words," I spat out, trembling. "You made a choice. You chose to abandon me."

"I made a choice to keep you safe!" Caleb roared suddenly, slamming his hand against the leather armrest.

The violence of his reaction caught me completely off guard. I froze, staring at him as he ran both hands through his hair, dragging them down his face in sheer agony.

"I was twenty-four, Scarlett," Caleb said, his voice dropping to a harsh, desperate whisper. "My father’s business didn't just fail—he left behind millions in debt to dangerous, powerful people who didn't care about legal boundaries. When he died, those debts fell directly onto my shoulders."

My breath caught in my throat. My heart stuttered a beat. *His father’s debts?*

"They shadowed my movements," Caleb continued, staring directly into my eyes, raw pain bleeding through his posture. "They knew where I worked. They knew where I ate. And worst of all, they knew who you were. I came home one night while you were working a double shift, and there was a photo of you tucked into our front door with a threat written on the back."

The air evaporated from my lungs. A cold shiver cascaded down my spine.

"They told me if I didn't step into my father's shoes, take over the bankrupt firm, and sign away my life to clear those debts, they would come after the person I loved most," Caleb confessed, his voice shaking with restrained emotion. "I had nothing. No money, no power, no way to protect you. The only leverage I had was to cut all ties completely so you would never be dragged into that nightmare."

He leaned closer, his eyes burning into mine with an intensity that made me forget how to breathe.

"I let you hate me, Scarlett," he whispered, a tear escaping his eye and tracing a path down his cheek. "I let you believe I was a coward who stopped loving you, because your hatred was the only thing keeping you safe from the monsters at my door. I spent five years clawing my way to the top, taking down every single person who threatened our safety, just so I could finally stand in front of you as a man who could protect you."

The truth hit me like a physical blow. Five years of anger, hurt, and self-doubt shattered in an instant, leaving behind a deep, aching void in my chest. All this time, I thought I was the victim of a heartless abandonment, completely unaware that he had walked through hell to keep me out of the fire.

I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice completely failed me. My hands shook uncontrollably in my lap.

Caleb reached out slowly, his fingers brushing against the side of my face, wiping away a teardrop I hadn't even realized had fallen.

"I never stopped loving you," he murmured, his gaze dropping to my lips before rising back to meet my eyes. "Not for a single second."

The driver tapped lightly on the front window, signaling that the road ahead had finally cleared.