Chapter 2 - The Photograph
Nathan was back inside the bookstore before Emma finished reading the article.
She had texted only three words.
Come back now.
He entered soaked from the rain.
“What happened?”
Emma turned her phone around.
Nathan read the headline.
His expression changed instantly.
Not embarrassment.
Fury.
He scrolled.
The article claimed unnamed sources close to Whitmore Global believed Emma had secretly left Manhattan after discovering she was pregnant.
It suggested Nathan had been desperately trying to locate his unborn child.
Then came the sentence that made Emma’s hands tremble.
Sources indicate Mrs. Whitmore may have intentionally concealed the pregnancy to gain leverage in an anticipated divorce.
Nathan looked up.
“No.”
Emma laughed without humor.
“That was fast.”
“I didn’t speak to anyone.”
“I didn’t say you did.”
Nathan read further.
A second anonymous source described him as a devastated husband trying to save his family.
A third implied Emma had become unstable following previous pregnancy losses.
Nathan stopped reading.
His face became frighteningly still.
“They mentioned the miscarriages.”
Emma’s throat tightened.
Only a small circle of people had known.
Nathan.
Eleanor.
Emma’s doctor.
Rachel.
And two senior employees who had once helped rearrange Nathan’s schedule around a fertility appointment he ultimately missed.
Nathan immediately called his general counsel.
Emma listened.
“I want every attempt to brief reporters about Emma identified.”
A pause.
“No.”
His voice sharpened.
“You are not protecting the company from my wife.”
Another pause.
“You will issue nothing until I approve it.”
He ended the call.
Emma crossed her arms.
“Your people are already treating me like a threat.”
“They’re not going to.”
“You don’t know that.”
Nathan looked at her.
“No.”
He took a breath.
“You’re right.”
Emma expected him to defend his company.
Instead, he said, “I spent years teaching everyone around me that the company came before you.”
The words landed harder than an excuse would have.
Nathan glanced at the article again.
“They learned the lesson.”
His phone rang.
Board chairman Douglas Mercer.
Nathan answered.
“Douglas.”
The voice on the other end was loud enough that Emma caught fragments.
Market reaction.
Shareholder exposure.
Family narrative.
Nathan’s jaw tightened.
“No.”
Another burst of words.
“No statement about Emma without her written approval.”
Nathan listened.
Then his eyes changed.
“What did you just say?”
Silence.
“Repeat it.”
Emma watched Nathan’s face drain of color.
He ended the call without saying goodbye.
“What?”
Nathan looked at her.
“The board’s crisis team knew you were pregnant before this article was published.”
Emma stopped breathing.
“How?”
“They won’t tell me.”
Nathan’s phone buzzed again.
This time it was a text from Eleanor.
Nathan, call me immediately. Olivia was seen entering Whitmore headquarters this morning.
Emma read the message over his shoulder.
Neither of them spoke.
May you like
Olivia Grant had been fired six months earlier.
Yet somehow, on the exact day Emma’s secret pregnancy became public, Olivia was back inside Nathan’s company.
