Chapter 14 - The Bride Who Wanted a Different FamilyAudrey called Nathan three days after the wedding.
He almost ignored the call.
Then he remembered Dina's advice: if he chose to communicate, he should keep it limited and preserve the exchange.
He answered.
“Audrey.”
For a moment, there was silence.
Then she said, “You really aren't coming back?”
Nathan stood at the kitchen window.
“No.”
Audrey exhaled sharply.
“Over a piece of cake?”
Nathan closed his eyes.
“Don't call it that.”
“What should I call it?”
“You frightened my son, tried to have him sent away, and threatened him with losing his home.”
Audrey said nothing.
Nathan continued.
“And you allowed paperwork to be submitted using my identity without my permission.”
Her voice sharpened.
“My mother said everything was preliminary.”
“That doesn't make it okay.”
“You don't understand what kind of pressure she's under.”
“Then explain it.”
Audrey paused.
For the first time, she sounded exhausted rather than furious.
“Rosehaven is everything to her.”
“It's her business.”
“It's her father's legacy.”
“And Eli is my son.”
Audrey's breathing changed.
“You always do that.”
“Do what?”
“Make everything about him.”
Nathan stared outside.
A bird landed on the backyard fence.
He remembered Eli watching birds with Hannah from the kitchen window.
“My child is part of my life,” Nathan said.
“I know that.”
“Then why have you been trying to separate us?”
Audrey's voice cracked.
“Because there was never room for me!”
Nathan said nothing.
She continued.
“Every holiday, somebody mentions Hannah. Every time I try something new with Eli, he compares it to his mother. Every decision about the house becomes a conversation about memories.”
Nathan felt a sudden sadness.
He had known Audrey was uncomfortable with Hannah's memory.
He hadn't understood how deeply she resented it.
“You weren't competing with Hannah,” he said quietly.
“That's easy for you to say.”
“Audrey, Hannah is dead.”
“I KNOW!”
Her scream rang through the phone.
Nathan waited.
When she spoke again, her voice was smaller.
“I wanted one day when I came first.”
Nathan looked down.
“And you chose to achieve that by humiliating a child?”
“He shouldn't have approached me after I told him to stay away.”
“He was asking for cake.”
Audrey's breathing faltered.
“He always wanted something.”
“He wanted to belong.”
A long silence followed.
Then Audrey whispered, “I thought once we were married, things would be different.”
“What things?”
“We'd have our own house. Our own routines. Our own life.”
“With Eli?”
She didn't answer.
Nathan felt his chest tighten.
“Audrey.”
“I thought Brooke could help.”
“For how long?”
“Just until we settled in.”
“How long?”
Another silence.
“Maybe a few weeks.”
Nathan shook his head.
“Did you ever ask Eli if he wanted that?”
“He's a child. Children adapt.”
Nathan remembered the frightened face beneath the frosting.
“Sometimes children become quiet because they've stopped believing adults will listen.”
Audrey began crying.
For one dangerous moment, Nathan felt the old impulse to comfort her.
He had spent months smoothing over her anger.
Explaining away Eli's fears.
Trying to keep everybody from becoming upset.
But comforting Audrey now would mean returning to the same pattern.
“I won't marry you,” he said.
“You already did.”
Nathan paused.
She was right.
Their ceremony had been completed, and the marriage license had been signed.
The public declaration at the cake table hadn't legally undone the marriage.
“I've spoken with an attorney,” he said. “I'll be pursuing the appropriate legal process to end it.”
Audrey began crying harder.
“You're destroying everything.”
“No,” Nathan replied. “I'm finally recognizing what was happening.”
She lowered her voice.
“My mother is going to lose Rosehaven.”
“I can't fix that.”
“She says you're the only one who can.”
Nathan looked toward Eli's bedroom door.
“Then she needs a different plan.”
Audrey's tone changed.
“You'll regret doing this to my family.”
Nathan remained calm.
“Don't contact Eli. Any further discussion about the loan needs to go through the lawyers.”
He ended the call.
For several minutes, he stood motionless.
He didn't feel victorious.
He felt grief.
Not for the wedding.
For the person he'd believed Audrey was.
His phone vibrated again.
A text from Audrey appeared.
You think my mother planned everything. You don't know what she threatened me with.
Nathan stared.
He had assumed Audrey's cruelty came from jealousy and entitlement.
But the message suggested another layer.
Not an excuse.
Not innocence.
May you like
A pressure that might explain why Audrey had allowed her mother's financial desperation to dictate the wedding.
And if he wanted the entire truth, Nathan would have to learn where Audrey's resentment ended and Celeste's manipulation began.
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