Chapter 19
Katherine stood in front of a mirror, adjusting the delicate necklace clasp at her nape as the camera crew finished setting up. Today’s interview was with a major international business network—one that had once only called Julian.
Now, they wanted her.
The producer, a woman with a clipboard and sharp heels, smiled as she approached. “They’ll ask about your company’s rise, of course… but they might bring up Nash Group.”
Katherine didn’t flinch. “Let them.”
She had stopped avoiding her past. It wasn’t a weakness anymore—it was proof of what she’d survived.
When the camera rolled, she spoke with ease. About innovation. About resilience. About building a brand with integrity when others thought she was just a footnote in someone else’s story.
Then came the question.
“Many believe your former connection to Julian Nash contributed to your early visibility. Would you say your rise is still tied to his name?”
Katherine met the reporter’s gaze calmly. “If being underestimated because I was ‘someone’s wife’ helped people ignore me, then yes. That silence gave me room to grow without interruption. But what I’ve built has nothing to do with his name. It was born the moment I decided I was enough on my own.”
The room went still.
And the moment the interview ended, applause broke out behind the scenes.
That clip would go viral before the day was over.
Across town, Julian sat in his office, watching the interview replay on his tablet.
The line that gutted him wasn’t the one about being enough.
It was the one about being ignored.
That had been his greatest sin—not the betrayal, not the distance, not even the night at the hotel.
It was all the days in between.
The breakfasts where he didn’t say a word.
The dinners she ate alone, even when he was sitting across from her.
The silent wounds he gave without lifting a hand.
He had bruised her spirit with neglect.
And now she was whole without him.
That afternoon, he called Cayson into his office.
“Start pulling back from the Larsen project,” he said.
Cayson blinked. “But it’s our strongest lead this quarter.”
Julian looked out the window. “We’re not doing business with people who play games behind closed doors. I want transparency across every board. Starting today.”
Cayson studied him for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Yes, sir.”
For the first time, Julian wasn’t thinking about profit.
He was thinking about integrity.
Because he had already lost the one woman who’d had it in abundance—and he refused to keep running a company that mirrored the coldness she once escaped.