I Got Revenge When They Drew The Same Room Key Chapter 10

I Got Revenge When They Drew The Same Room Key Chapter 10

Security stopped her at the door.

Through the glass doors as they slid shut, I could hear her screaming my name.

I kept walking.

One night, Julian sent me a long message.

[Hazel, I’ve been thinking about us today.]

[You don’t like the rain.]

[The night your family went bankrupt, you stood out in the rain clutching those legal papers, waiting for me.]

[I told you that whenever you looked back, I’d be right there.]

[I’m sorry.]

[I wish I could go back.]

I read every word. Then I deleted the conversation.

There was no point in living inside what-ifs.

Nathaniel watched me delete it and raised an eyebrow.

“Julian?”

I nodded.

He didn’t ask what it said.

He just pushed a contract in front of me.

“Phase one funding for Sterling Corporation’s project just cleared.”

“That should shut up about half the people who’ve been waiting to watch the Sterlings fail.”

I opened the contract. Sterling Corporation was right there on the front page.

Something inside me finally settled.

“Thank you.”

Nathaniel looked at me.

“Hazel.”

“We’re married, Hazel.”

“You can stop thanking me.”

I looked up at him.

The light caught the lines of his face.

He wasn’t loud the way Julian was.

But there was a steadiness to him that ran deep.

He was solid ground.

He didn’t have to say a word. He just had to be there, and the world felt safer.

I thought about what he’d told me the day we signed the license.

“I won’t ask you to feel something you don’t.”

But love didn’t always arrive like a storm.

Sometimes it grew in the quiet. In every moment someone chose to respect you, to protect you, to take you

seriously.

A year later, Sterling Corporation was back on its feet.

The Reeds and the Sterlings held a gala downtown to celebrate their joint venture.

Julian was there.

He was quieter than I’d ever seen him.

No Chloe. None of those laughing friends.

When the gala ended, he stopped me.

This time, Nathaniel didn’t step between us.

He stood beside me and waited, letting me take the lead.

Julian looked at me. The fight was gone from his eyes. All that was left was exhaustion.

“Hazel.”

“Are you… happy?”

I nodded.

“Very.”

He swallowed hard.

“Good.”

He tried to smile. He couldn’t quite get there.

“I always thought you were the one who couldn’t live without me.”

“Turns out I’m the one who can’t live without you.”

“I just figured it out too late.”

I didn’t have anything to say to that.

Love that showed up after the damage was done didn’t feel like devotion. It just reminded you of everything you survived alone.

Julian pulled a key from his pocket.

The spare to his car.

“I kept this the whole time.”

“Nobody else has sat in that seat since.”

I looked at it. Then I said,

“Julian.”

“Just because you kept the seat empty doesn’t mean I still want to sit in it.”

Julian’s hand closed around the key so hard his knuckles went white.

He looked past me at Nathaniel.

Nathaniel said nothing. Just gave him a small nod.

Something in Julian let go.

He stepped back, his voice barely there.

“Be happy, Hazel.”

It was raining when we stepped outside.

Nathaniel opened the umbrella.

I watched the rain come down and stopped walking.

“Nathaniel.”

He turned.

“Hmm?”

I asked him.

“That fight in the backyard when we were kids. Why did you stop?”

Nathaniel looked thrown for once.

He was quiet for a second, then laughed softly.

“Because when you threw yourself in front of him, I thought…”

“That Julian guy. Lucky bastard.”

“Having someone fight for him like that.”

I went still for a second.

He held the umbrella steady, his voice going quiet.

“Then I thought…”

“If he ever stopped deserving her…”

“I’d take my shot.”

I looked at him.

“So you waited all those years?”

Nathaniel raised an eyebrow.

“I wouldn’t call it waiting.”

More like remembering.

“Remembering that little girl who threw herself into a fight for someone else, and watching her grow into the most beautiful, most stubborn woman I’d ever seen.”

“Remembering how people looked down on her and she never once bent.”

“Remembering a red dress she never got to wear.”

He paused.

“And knowing she deserved better than to be worn down into someone who just takes it.”

The rain tapped against the umbrella.

The sound was barely there.

My eyes stung.

Nathaniel didn’t rush me.

He just shifted the umbrella a little more over my head.

I reached over and laced my fingers through his.

“Nathaniel.”

“Let’s make this real. Just you and me.”

He looked at me for a long time.

And for the first time, the smile in his eyes finally reached the rest of his face.

“Okay.”

“Mrs. Reed,”