Chapter 3: The Summer Everyone Erased
The sentence stayed in the room long after Mae finished speaking.
Someone made sure you would believe you did.
Nolan stood motionless, the ring still resting between his fingers.
For years, he had believed the summer before his twenty-eighth birthday had simply disappeared because grief had swallowed him whole.
His father’s funeral.
The endless meetings.
The nights he couldn’t remember.
The mornings when he woke up in his bedroom with no memory of how he got there.
Everyone had told him the same thing.
“You were under enormous stress.””
“You weren’t yourself.””
“You imagined things that never happened.””
But now Mae was standing in front of him with a three-year-old girl who had his eyes.
And an engagement ring engraved with their names.
Nolan looked at Celeste.
“What did you do?””
Celeste’s expression hardened.
“I didn’t do anything.””
“Then why are you afraid?””
“I’m not afraid.””
“You are.””
Celeste laughed sharply.
“You walk into a room after months away and suddenly you believe the first story you hear from a woman who works here?””
Mae lowered her eyes.
The words hurt.
Nolan noticed.
“Stop.””
Celeste looked at him.
“Stop what?””
“Talking about her like she’s invisible.””
“She is a servant.””
Nolan’s jaw tightened.
“No. She’s Mae.””
For a second, Celeste looked almost betrayed.
As if hearing him say Mae’s name mattered more than anything else.
Marcus stepped forward.
“Nolan, you need to understand something.””
“No. You need to explain something.””
Marcus glanced at Celeste.
That small movement confirmed what Nolan already suspected.
They were connected.
Not just engaged.
Not just friends.
They had a secret.
“What happened that night?”” Nolan asked.
Mae’s hands tightened around Nora.
“What night?””
“The night I forgot.””
Mae looked away.
“You really don’t remember.””
“No.””
Her expression changed from sadness to disbelief.
“Nothing?””
Nolan searched his own memories.
A storm.
The old west wing.
A glass breaking.
Mae crying.
A voice telling him to leave.
Then nothing.
“I remember my father’s funeral,” Nolan said quietly.
“I remember the company falling apart. I remember drinking too much.””
He looked at Mae.
“But I don’t remember you leaving.””
Mae swallowed.
“Because I didn’t leave.””
The room went silent.
Nolan stared at her.
“What?””
“I didn’t abandon you.””
“Then why did I find your room empty?””
“Because Celeste had me removed.””
Celeste immediately stepped forward.
“That’s a lie.””
Mae looked at her.
“You told me Nolan never wanted to see me again.””
“You were obsessed with him.””
“You told me he was embarrassed by me.””
“You were nothing but a distraction.””
Nolan’s face changed.
“Celeste.””
She turned toward him.
“She’s twisting everything.””
Mae shook her head.
“No. I kept quiet because I thought protecting Nolan meant staying away.””
Nolan felt something inside him crack.
“Why?””
Mae looked down at Nora.
“Because I was pregnant.””
The word landed like a stone.
Nolan stopped breathing.
Nora was suddenly the only thing he could see.
His daughter.
His child.
The little girl who had looked at him and asked why he looked like her.
“You knew?””
Mae nodded.
“I found out two weeks after you gave me that ring.””
Nolan looked at the ring in his hand.
“You were going to tell me?””
“Yes.””
“Then why didn’t you?””
Mae’s eyes moved toward Marcus.
Then Celeste.
“I tried.””
Marcus looked away.
Nolan noticed.
“You knew.””
Marcus said nothing.
“You knew?””
“I knew Mae was pregnant.””
The room seemed to shrink.
Nolan took one step forward.
“And you didn’t tell me?””
Marcus’s face remained controlled.
“You were not stable.””
“That wasn’t your decision.””
“Your family made decisions for you.””
Nolan froze.
“My family?””
Marcus hesitated.
Too late.
Nolan heard it.
“Who?””
Nobody answered.
Then the sound of a phone vibrating broke the silence.
Everyone looked toward Celeste.
Her hand slowly moved toward her pocket.
Nolan saw it.
“Give me the phone.””
“No.””
“Celeste.””
She stepped backward.
The confidence she had carried all evening was gone.
Nolan walked closer.
“Give me the phone.””
“I said no.””
Marcus suddenly moved.
Not toward Nolan.
Toward Celeste.
He whispered, “We need to leave.””
Nolan blocked the doorway.
“No one leaves.””
Celeste’s eyes flashed.
“You think you can order everyone around because you have the Ashford name?””
“No.””
Nolan held up the ring.
“I think someone has been lying to me for four years.””
Celeste stared at it.
“You have no idea what you’re uncovering.””
“Then tell me.””
She said nothing.
Nolan lowered his voice.
“What happened to me?””
Celeste’s lips trembled.
For the first time, she looked less like a powerful woman controlling a room.
And more like someone trapped by a secret she could no longer hide.
“You should have stayed in Manhattan.””
Nolan went still.
“Why?””
Celeste looked at Mae.
Then Nora.
Then back at him.
“Because if you remembered everything…”
She stopped.
Nolan waited.
But Celeste’s phone vibrated again.
This time, a name appeared on the screen.
Nolan saw it.
And his blood turned cold.
May you like
The message was from someone saved under one word.
*Father.*
