He Brought Me a College Guy, Saying I’d Never Touch Him—But I Kept Him Chapter 16

He Brought Me a College Guy, Saying I’d Never Touch Him—But I Kept Him Chapter 16

Later, Isabella found out what happened from the news.

Eugene’s illegitimate son was exposed by the media. It was everywhere.

Margaret filed for divorce.

Two old people signed the papers. One stayed in the estate. The other moved into a nursing home.

The Hawthorne fortune got split. The illegitimate son took a big chunk.

The Hawthorne Group took a hit. Spent years digging out of the hole.

Cassidy did end up getting a job.

She married a regular office worker eventually. Had a baby. Life was fine. Not great, not terrible.

Sometimes she posted inspirational quotes on social media.

And Nathaniel kept showing up in Isabella’s life in small ways.

He sent her things.

Her favorite tea. The snacks she liked. A monthly subscription to the flower shop she used to go to.

The packages never had a return address, but she knew it was him.

She sent everything back.

Eventually, he stopped sending them.

She heard through old friends that Nathaniel was waiting for her.

“She’ll figure out that man can’t compare to me,” he told Derek once over drinks. “She’ll come back,”

He was holding onto hope. Just waiting for her to get bored. Waiting for her to realize he was still the best

option.

Isabella heard about it. But she didn’t care.

Her career was taking off. Her relationship was good.

Nathaniel didn’t know, but she was doing great.

Running her own team. Managing her own projects.

Before, all her energy went into waiting for Nathaniel to come home. Now it went into reports and clients

and deals.

It was exhausting. But it was real.

Every dollar she made was hers. Every success was something she built.

Julian was five years younger than her, but he never felt immature.

If she said, “I feel like having something hearty tonight,” he went to the store and came back with groceries.

If she worked late, he sat in the coffee shop downstairs and waited.

When she came out, he handed her a warm cup of hot chocolate and said, “You worked hard.”

He didn’t say fancy things. Didn’t plan romantic surprises.

He couldn’t even fight.

Every time she got mad, he just sat next to her and listened until she was done.

Then he said, “I’m sorry,” and asked, “Are you hungry? I can make you a grilled cheese.”

Sometimes she thought that was all she ever really needed.

Not some grand gesture. Just quiet company.

Not someone who knelt in a chapel for hours. Just the warmth of someone who cared.

The year Julian finished grad school, she had a daughter.

Julian’s hands were shaking when he held the baby.

“She looks like you, but her eyes are like mine.”

Isabella watched him and laughed. Then she asked Julian something she’d been wondering about for a long,

time.

“Why did you go to Nathaniel and volunteer that day?”

Julian froze for a minute.

He looked down at their daughter in his arms, and his ears turned red again.

“Because the year you pulled me out of a collapsed building after the earthquake, I told myself I was going to find you someday.”

“Not to pay you back.” He looked up at her. “Because I wanted to be near you. I didn’t care how.”

It was the first time he’d told her the whole story.

She was eighteen back then.

She went to the disaster zone with her father as a volunteer.

During an aftershock, she threw herself over a little boy and shielded his head.

Rocks hit her back. She didn’t let go.

Later, the boy was sent away for treatment.

She thought it was just something small she’d done. Hadn’t thought about it in years.

But that boy remembered for ten years.

“So you knew it was me from the beginning?” she asked.

“Not for sure,” Julian said with a smile. “But once I saw photos in your house, I was sure.”

“Then why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“Because if I told you, you wouldn’t have let me stay. You would have thought I was doing it to repay a debt. You would have felt like you owed me something. You would have been polite.”

He lowered his head, his voice getting softer. “I didn’t want you to be polite to me.”

Isabella looked at him and felt her eyes sting. “You’re an idiot.”

Julian smiled. He placed their daughter gently into her arms and leaned down to kiss her forehead.

“Yeah,” he said. “Your idiot.”

In the years that followed, Nathaniel kept waiting.

Waiting for Isabella to change her mind. Waiting for Julian to screw up. Waiting for her to realize that he was the one who really deserved her.

He waited three years.

Five years.

Seven years.

He watched Isabella have a second child.

Watched her company get bigger.

Watched her take the company public.

Watched her become someone important in her industry. “Isabella Reed.”

He never saw her come back.

He never found anyone else either.

Derek asked him once, “Nate, what are you even waiting for?”

Nathaniel thought about it for a long time.

“I don’t know,” he said.

Maybe he wasn’t waiting for Isabella.

Maybe he was waiting for himself to finally accept that she was never coming back.

That boy who knelt in the chapel for hours. He didn’t get what he prayed for.

But maybe that was the best outcome anyway.

She was okay.

That was enough.