Chapter 9: The Price of Her Regret

Two weeks had passed since I started my new job, and for the first time in years, I was beginning to feel like myself again.

My project was progressing smoothly. Mr. Bennett had praised my proposal during the weekly executive meeting, and my team had already begun implementing the first phase of the plan.

I was finally being treated like the professional I had worked so hard to become.

Then, one Monday morning, Evelyn appeared beside my desk with a strange expression.

"Nathan, someone is waiting for you downstairs."

I glanced at the clock. "Do I have an appointment?"

"No. She says she's your former fiancée."

My fingers stopped moving across the keyboard.

Gina.

I had never actually proposed to her, but she had spent years calling herself my future wife. Apparently, she had decided that the title still belonged to her.

"Tell her I'm busy," I said.

Evelyn hesitated. "She has been waiting for almost three hours. She says she won't leave until she sees you."

"Then she may be waiting a little longer."

I returned to my work, but my concentration had already been disturbed. I hated that her name could still affect me, even after everything she had done.

Nearly an hour later, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.

"Nathan, please," Gina said as soon as I answered. Her voice sounded exhausted. "I know you're there. I've seen your colleagues coming and going. Just give me five minutes."

"What do you want, Gina?"

"I want to see you."

"You've had seven years to look at me. You rarely bothered."

Silence settled between us.

"I deserve that," she whispered. "But please, let me explain."

"There is nothing left to explain. Anna is dead. Our relationship is over. What exactly do you think five minutes will change?"

She began to cry.

Once, her tears would have been enough to make me abandon everything and run to her. I would have held her, wiped her cheeks, and promised that everything would be fine.

Now, I simply listened.

"I brought something for you," she said. "Something that belonged to Anna."

My heart tightened.

"What is it?"

"Her little notebook. The one she kept at home. I found it among the things you left behind."

I closed my eyes.

Anna had carried that notebook everywhere. She wrote down her favorite songs, drew tiny flowers in the margins, and made lists of things she wanted to do when she grew older.

I had searched for it before leaving, but I hadn't been able to find it.

"Leave it with reception," I said quietly. "I'll arrange for it to be sent to me."

"Nathan, please don't do this. It's Anna's notebook. You should take it from me yourself."

"You don't get to use my sister to make me meet you."

I ended the call.

My hands were shaking, and I hated that she had managed to reach the one part of me I was still struggling to protect.

That afternoon, the notebook arrived at my apartment.

I sat beside the window and carefully opened its worn cover. The first pages contained Anna's uneven handwriting and little drawings of hearts. On one page, she had written a list titled Things I Want Before I Grow Up.

Learn to swim.

Visit the sea.

Eat strawberry cake whenever I want.

See Nate get married.

My vision blurred.

Beneath the list was a small drawing of Gina and me standing beneath a flower arch. Anna had drawn herself between us, holding a bouquet almost as large as her head.

At the bottom, she had written, "I hope Gina will always make Nate happy because Nate always makes me happy."

I pressed the notebook against my chest.

"I'm sorry, Little Star," I whispered. "I tried. I really did."

I cried until the afternoon light faded, then carefully placed the notebook beside her photograph.

The next morning, I learned that Gina had not returned home after leaving my office.

I heard about it through a former colleague who contacted me unexpectedly. According to him, Gina had gone straight from my building to Whitmore Corporation and called an emergency executive meeting.

She had begun reviewing every decision made during the previous year, including Lincoln's promotion and the purchases she had approved for him.

The review had uncovered more than she expected.

Several company accounts showed expenses that Lincoln had claimed were necessary for business development. Luxury hotel stays, private dinners, and personal purchases had been submitted under project budgets. Some invoices had been approved without proper documentation.

Gina had initially dismissed the findings as administrative errors.

Then she discovered emails in which Lincoln had mocked her behind her back.

One message, sent to a colleague, read, "As long as I keep acting helpless, she'll keep paying for everything. Her boyfriend is too busy playing the loyal victim to do anything about it."

Another said, "The best part is watching her pretend she's running some brilliant trap. She actually believes she's manipulating me."

Gina read the messages in silence.

For months, she had convinced herself that Lincoln was a piece on her chessboard. She had believed she could raise him up, destroy him at the perfect moment, and return to Nathan with a clean conscience.

But Lincoln had never been playing by her rules.

He had simply recognized an opportunity and taken advantage of it.

When Gina summoned him to her office, Lincoln arrived wearing the expensive watch she had given him.

"You wanted to see me, sweetheart?" he asked casually.

Gina placed the printed emails on her desk.

"Explain these."

His smile faltered as he scanned the pages.

"You've been reading my private messages?"

"I asked you to explain them."

"It's a joke. You're seriously going to believe some stupid message over me?"

"Did you submit personal expenses under company projects?"

Lincoln leaned back in his chair. "Everyone does it. Besides, you're the CEO. You can approve whatever you want."

The casual answer frightened her more than an angry denial would have.

"You knew I was trying to catch you," she said slowly. "You knew about the trap."

Lincoln laughed.

"Of course I did. You weren't exactly subtle. Every time you praised me in front of Nathan, you watched his face to see whether he was jealous. Every gift was another test. You thought I was stupid enough not to notice?"

Gina's face drained of color.

"Then why did you keep accepting everything?"

"Because you kept offering."

He stood, adjusted his watch, and gave her a smile that held none of the affection she had imagined.

"You wanted to prove you could control both of us. I wanted to see how much you were willing to give me. Looks like we both got what we wanted."

"I gave you a chance at this company," Gina said, her voice trembling with anger.

"And I gave you something to distract yourself with while your boyfriend was falling apart. You're welcome."

For a moment, Gina looked as though she might slap him.

Instead, she pressed the intercom and called security.

"Collect his company access card. His employment is terminated, effective immediately. The vehicle and property purchased with company funds will be reviewed by our legal department."

Lincoln's expression hardened.

"You're making a mistake."

"No," Gina replied. "I made it a long time ago."

Security escorted him out of the building. Employees watched from their desks as the man who had once strutted through the company like its future owner left without his usual smile.

Gina remained in her office, staring at the closed door.

She had finally brought Lincoln down, exactly as she had promised Nathan she would.

But there was no satisfaction in the victory. No relieved smile, no familiar arms waiting to embrace her, no future wedding to look forward to.

The person she had wanted to impress was thousands of miles away, and he had no reason to care what she did next.

That evening, Gina returned to the bridal shop where she and Nathan had tried on wedding clothes. She stood outside the window, looking at the white dress displayed beneath the warm lights.

She remembered how Nathan had looked in his custom suit. She remembered teasing him about his missing watch and promising that Anna would be the flower girl.

She had made plans for a wedding while the little girl was waiting for an operation that might have saved her life.

Gina covered her mouth as a sob escaped.

"Nathan," she whispered into the empty street. "I finally did it. I made him lose everything."

But the victory she had promised him no longer meant anything.

She had destroyed Lincoln's comfortable life, yet she could not restore Anna's heartbeat. She could fire the intern, reclaim the car, and fight over the mansion, but she could not buy back the man who had once believed every promise she made.

For the first time, Gina understood that regret was not the same as redemption.

And somewhere far away, Nathan was beginning to build a life in which her regret would no longer be his responsibility.