Chapter 3

Meredith's POV

My mind went completely blank. Every drop of blood drained from my face.

"Nate..." I breathed into the phone, my voice trembling violently. "Listen to me, it's not what you think. He forced me—"

Dead silence on the other end.

Seconds later, Nate's voice came through. Hoarse. Broken.

"The woman I love most in this world, and my best friend..." His voice shook. "You two disgust me."

Click. Dial tone.

I stared at the black screen, then threw myself at Ronan, grabbing his collar and screaming in his face:

"Why would you do that?! Nate treated you like his best friend, and you just destroyed him!"

Ronan didn't even blink. He sluggishly pulled his motorcycle jacket on, a flash of contempt in his blue-gray eyes, and brushed past me with a cold smirk.

I didn't have time to deal with him. Shaking, I grabbed my phone and dialed Nate over and over, but it went straight to voicemail.

I threw on a trench coat, bolted into the garage, and jumped into the Porsche. I ran two red lights and slammed the brakes in front of the ER, the tires screeching like a banshee.

Sprinting in my heels into the lobby, I cornered the charge nurse. "Where's Nate?!"

"Dr. Thornton took a call this morning, looked awful, grabbed his keys and left," the nurse stammered, intimidated by my pale, crazed look. "Probably some emergency business off-site, Ma'am."

Hearing that, the boulder in my chest lifted slightly.

I knew Nate. He was a workaholic. He was definitely using "emergency business" as an excuse to get away and process. He just needed time to cool off.

I drove back home. The moment I pushed the front door open, I froze.

Sitting on the Persian rug in the living room were two massive, heavy-duty black suitcases. Deep drag marks scarred the hardwood floor behind them.

Ronan was bending over to grab the handle of one. Even with his muscular build, the veins in his temples bulged instantly. It took absolutely everything in him to drag that monstrous black case inch by inch toward the doorway.

"After what happened, I have no right to face either of you," he said, his tone eerily calm.

I stood on the steps, glaring coldly as he struggled to shove those ridiculously heavy suitcases into the trunk of his car.

Ronan turned around. The cynical smirk was gone, replaced by a pathetic, desperate stubbornness.

"Meredith." His voice cracked. "In that bed... over these past weeks... did you ever... even for a second, actually like me?"

"Do you even deserve to ask that?" I cut him off, my amber eyes completely devoid of warmth. I declared every word with surgical precision: "I only love Nathaniel. I will only ever love him."

Ronan burst into a sudden, jarring laugh. He looked down, his shoulders shaking violently, the cynical laughter echoing down the empty driveway.

He looked up at me as if I were a tragic, dead thing, and coldly repeated my words: "Right. You only love Nathaniel."

He got in his car and disappeared down the road.

By the next morning, Nate still hadn't surfaced. I grabbed my phone again and called the hospital's executive admin office.

A different chief admin answered.

"Mrs. Thornton?" She sounded thoroughly confused. "Why are you calling the hospital to ask where Dr. Thornton is? He's been overworked, so the board forced him to take a leave of absence yesterday morning. They told him to go straight home and rest!"

My brain buzzed like a hornet's nest.

Go home? Yesterday morning?

I scoured the house like a madwoman—the study, the wine cellar, the underground garage. Nothing. Even his car was gone. I called every place in the city he could possibly be. Nobody had seen him.

If Nate didn't go on a business trip, and he didn't stay at the hospital...

Where the hell was he?