Chapter 23
He ran through the rain, mounted the nearest horse, and rode like a madman back to the estate.
By the time he reached Katherine’s old courtyard, he was drenched and barely breathing.
The room was empty.
Her mirror was gone.
Her clothes were gone.
Half the books she used to read were gone.
The only thing left was a small wooden box in the corner.
Nicholas opened it with trembling hands.
Inside were all the little things he had ever given her without thinking. A butterfly hairpin he once bought from a roadside stand on a whim. Crumpled drafts of poems he had thrown away that she had carefully smoothed flat. An old handkerchief of his, worn soft with age.
She had taken everything that belonged to her.
And left behind only the scraps of affection he had tossed her over the years.
Like returning alms she no longer wanted.
He spun around and seized Lila by the shoulders, his eyes bloodshot.
“Where did she go?”
Lila was crying, but this time there was hatred in her tears.
“You want to know where she went? Go find her if you can. She left covered in wounds and barely able to walk, but she still dragged herself to the courthouse. Do you know what she said?”
Nicholas stared at her, rigid.
Lila’s voice broke.
“She said the greatest mistake of her life was falling in love with you.”
Nicholas staggered backward as if struck.
He went straight to the Calhoun family estate.
Katherine’s older brother met him at the door and blocked his way.
“She has nothing to do with you anymore,” he said coldly. “Leave.”
“Please,” Nicholas said. “Let me see her. I know I was wrong. I’ll make it right. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right.”
Her brother laughed once, without humor.
“When our father was dying, she begged to come home, and you kept her there to care for your precious Samantha. He died without seeing his daughter. And now you want a chance to make things right?”