Chapter 15

Unedited...

After leaving Nathan's office, Sabrina went to the shelter where she and Tony discussed ideas to get donations. Then, later she asks her if anything changed with the bank.

Unfortunately, it hasn't. She knew she only told Nathan yesterday. So she would wait a few days before she asked again.


Upon arriving home. She does her usually. Shower and change, sweats and a T-shirt again. When she comes out of the closet, she notices a text on her phone.

Nathan's cell- "I won't be home until late. Don't wait up for me."

Sabrina hits reply. "Ok." Sent.

She puts the phone down. "Ding!" She picks it right back up.


"Think about what I said."

She stares at the text. Did he want to give their marriage a try? Why after fourteen long months of ignoring her? He could have taken her on their wedding night she was so spellbound. "Let's give this marriage a try." She mumbles to herself.
Nathan was settling. He's accepting what's been given to him just like he told his mother.
The thought made her want to vomit her breakfast... She didn't want to be accepted. She wanted to be wanted.

"Ding!" Another text. "We could be good together."

Could they? Wouldn't he get bored? Would their marriage be loveless?

What if he's accepting his fate to have a marriage like his parents? She cringed at the thought.

She would fall in love with him, and he would resent her for being stuck in this marriage.
After a while, she would only be selfishly wanting to keep a man who wanted to be free. It was hard for him to even. It was like shards of glass being forced down his throat.

In the end, he would hate her, and she would hate herself for selfishly binding him to her.

She becomes sick with jealousy at the thought of him with someone else, but Is that a reason to make a commitment? Nathan shouldn't be forced to have what his parents have.  She doesn't reply to his text.


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THREE DAYS LATER. 1:22 AM



"Aunty Sabrina." Dylan taps a sleeping Sabrina awake. She rolls over eyes half open.

"Yeah, sweetie."

"I'm thirsty."

She leans over, reaching for a bottle of water she kept on the floor by the bed. It was gone.

The kids have been sleeping every night with Nathan and her. She couldn't remember the last time she had to get up to give him water, and she always replaced it.


"Let me just run downstairs for some." She lets Dylan know before she leaves the room.


As she goes down the stairs she notices Vivian gazing out the window with her arms folded like she was waiting for someone.

Maybe Nathan just realised he wasn't on the bed. He did call and say he was working late.

Leaving Vivian she goes into the kitchen and grabs a new bottle from the pantry and goes back upstairs.

"Thank you, Auntie Sabrina. Uncle Nathan forgot to get a new one."

She takes the half-empty bottle from him and sets it on the night stand. "Uncle Nathan's been waking up with you?"

"Yeah," Dylan replies.

"Uncle Nathan has been working hard some pretty long hours. You should wake me up instead. Ok."


Since the breakfast incident, Sabrina has seen Nathan two times, he woke her with a light kiss in the morning. She opened her eyes just as his lips brushed her forehead.

The second time he picked her up from the shelter. On the limo ride back they were both silent. He was rubbing his fingertips studying her shamelessly as he had so much planned and was just waiting to reach home to pounce on her.

Luckily for her, his phone started ringing, and he ended up in his office when they arrived.

He's always gone when she wakes. The only way she knew he came into the room was the wet shower in the morning.


"I tried, Uncle Nathan told me not to wake you." Dylan lays down near her like he does every night.

"It's ok I'm giving you permission to wake me."


"I can't." Dylan's voice quietly protests. "Uncle Nathan covers you like daddy does mommy."
He always wakes up when I try to wake you up."


Nathan's covering her what? Like hugging her? Was she that much of a heavy sleeper that she didn't feel him? She boiled it down to him sleeping near Dylan when he came onto the bed.
Dylan's breathing becomes heavy as he falls back asleep.


She lays back down thinking about what he just said. Nathan was waking up with him so she wouldn't have to. She didn't want to bother him any more than she already was. With her in his bedroom and the children wanting to sleep with her every night she knew he was probably irritated.

She lets the children sleep with her for two reasons. One she can't resist a cute face. Two, she knew being alone with Nathan would lead to more.

Has she given his proposal some more thought? Selfishly yes, but her answer is still the same.


Nathan basically said, Hey, we're stuck together so let's be together. Then came the sickening thought that if she couldn't satisfy his needs, then another probably would.


Under no circumstance did she want Nathan to be with her by force. She wants him to choose her and thanks to her father he had no choice. He should be with any woman he wants. When they finally do speak. She has to be unselfish and let him be happy. Let him live the life he wants to. He's not even the one being blackmailed. He may be arrogant and temperamental but, he didn't deserve to have what he's been dreading his whole life.



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THE SAME NIGHT. 2:04 AM



Nathan didn't know how he was up right now. He'd barely gotten any sleep over the last few days. Working around the clock fixing a major screw-up on a deal that is time-constricted. He finally reaches home and heads straight into the kitchen. He goes to the fridge and pulls out a dish of food Sabrina makes sure he eats the next day. He smiles and shakes his head remembering her scolding him in a text. "You didn't eat your dinner I had the chef leave for you."


He replies. "So." Sent.

He waits anxiously for a few minutes. Then finally, his phone vibrates.


"Fine, I'll bring it to your office then."


He quickly hits reply. "Fine. I'll eat it."

He sticks his chicken in the oven. She knew how to get him. As much as he wanted time with her, she would be more of a distraction to him in the office. He never had to have so much restraint in his life, and he was hardly focusing on his work.

Never in a billion years would he have thought he would ever want to have a real marriage. It was Sabrina's fault watching her every day it's hard not to want to be with her.

Her patience and kindness made him think that having her as a wife and having kids with her might not be that bad.

The night of the charity auction he just wanted to take her out and get to know her. He didn't want to just pin her down and do what he's been dying to do for years. But that changed when he saw another man touching her. He grew jealous. He had worked very hard to control his anger over the years. He hasn't hit anyone since he broke a man's jaw in a bar fight. But. The thought of another man smiling at her made his blood boil. All his training goes out the door. All he sees is red. He could probably kill a man for passing a glance. Jealousy is an emotion he never felt or prepped himself for. So when it hit him, he didn't see his actions coming.

"Nathan." He hears his mother's voice behind him.

He looks over his shoulder. "What are you doing up?"

Vivian walks over and sits across in from him.

"I waited for you to get home. I would like to talk to you."

Nathan takes a bite of his chicken. "What about?"He's exhausted and stressed out. He didn't need any more headaches and was hoping his mother wasn't going to give him one.


"I want to tell you what I know about your father and Ben Reed."

Nathan continues to chew paying close attention to her.

"They were best friends in college. Ben worked directly with your father. They had major success together until they let a woman come in between them. Mariel Reed, Sabrina's mother. She was hired as a secretary.

To make a long story short. They both fell for her. That gold-digging slut was trying to get rich, but she picked the wrong man."


Vivian's voice was filled with disgust. "She picked Ben over your father, and that caused a big rift in their friendship. Your father fired him and her and backlisted them in the aircraft industry.

"So her father made her marry me because dad has signed over the company to me?" He was beginning to understand.


"I believe so...But... Nathan, they didn't make her marry you she did it willingly. She's, not this innocent baby you see her as. She knows what she stands to get in the end."

Nathan ignores her comment. "So what does Ben Reed have on dad?"

Vivian's furrows her eyebrows. "I don't know." She answers and stands up in protest. Are you hearing anything I'm saying Nathan or are just as stupid as your father?"

Nathan looks up at his mother in confusion. "What?"

Vivian's eyes start to water again. He saw her cry so much his entire life that it just annoyed him.

"Answer me." He demands.


"Your father and I married because I got pregnant with your sister. He could never love me because he could never give up on her. Months after our marriage he tried to contact her. One day he got drunk and told me he loved her, and that he didn't think himself capable of stopping." She weeps loudly. "I've had to share my husband with this woman my whole marriage! Now I have to share my son and grandkids with her too! I have to look at her daughter who is a constant reminder of her every day and watch my son fall under the same spell! I have to watch my husband flinch when he sees Sabrina's face because she looks so much like her mother! I hate you for making me live with this! I hate you for making me live this nightmare forever!"

Vivian storms off wiping her eyes.


Nathan leans back in his chair. He knew Clarissa's pregnancy caused his parents to marry but, he didn't know that Sabrina's mother had anything to do with how coldly his father treated his mother.

As childish and scheming as his mother can be he did love her. She was the only one there for him. His father was more of a ghost in his life.

He kept his mother completely fooled and blind. Public records show a lengthy court case which resulted in his father winning 100% shares of what's now known as Alden Enterprises.

What Nathan didn't know was what could Ben Reed possibly have that he could now after years take the company. Is he stupid to believe Sabrina didn't find the same public record? Is he under the same spell Sabrina's mother put his father under? Was Sabrina after money after all?



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