Nathan lingered by the hospital window, watching the snow fall in slow spirals against the city skyline. Behind him, the low murmur of the sibling voices had faded after they unsuccessfully tried to make him leave the room, Matilda had finally drifted back to sleep, exhaustion pulling her under.

Ethan stood on the opposite side of the bed, arms folded, eyes fixed on Nathan like a man deciding whether to bare his teeth or shake hands.

“You’ve been here for a few hours,” Ethan said flatly. “That’s long enough for a stranger.”

Nathan’s brow arched. “I’m not a stranger.”

“To me, you are.....12 years is too long a time to still call you a friend” Ethan shot back. “And to her… you’re the man who called her Mrs. Jones like it was a claim you could stake.”

Nathan let the silence stretch before answering.

“It’s not a claim. It’s a contract.”

Ethan’s jaw tightened. “And why would my sister have a contract with you?”

“Because our parents signed one before we were even old enough to know what it meant,” Nathan replied, his tone cool. “And fulfilling it is the only way to protect her.”

Ethan gave a sharp, humorless laugh. “Protect her? From what — or from whom?, do you even know what you need to protect her from?”

Nathan didn’t flinch. “From the same people who left her in that bed for two years, with the world thinking she was dead. The same people who took her company, her properties, her name.... and from the same people that made you not come to her in 5 years....the younger sister that I know you to always protect was too precious to you for you to leave her alone for so many years”

Something flickered in Ethan’s expression recognition, maybe even anger but it was gone before Nathan could pin it down...he hated to admit it but this stupid ex best friend of his knew him too well.

“Stop acting like you bloody know everything when you know nothing, after I left her why didn't you come back.....what held you down in Japan for 10 years if you had been there maybe she wouldn't be here right now" Ethan said in quiet anger trying not to roar for fear of waking Matilda up.

"I tried to come back Ethan, you think I didn't try to protect her too but..." Nathan stopped before he exposed more than he should..

Ethan did not push forward on the but he knew Nathan enough to know he wouldn't say what he didn't want to and pushing him would be unsuccessful

"All I know is she isn't going back to L.A...and that's final"

“She has to,” Nathan said, his voice firm. “If we stay here, they win. The only way to get her life back is to walk right into the fire and drag the truth into the open.”

“And if that truth burns her alive?” Ethan’s voice was low, dangerous.

“You’ve been gone twelve years, Nathan. You didn’t watch her piece herself together after our parents died. You didn’t see her break after the accident, I did..... And I’m not letting you drag her back into the city that tried to kill her.”

Nathan stepped closer, closing the space between them until they were almost toe to toe. “You’ve kept her hidden for two years and yet, whoever did this is still out there, untouched. How much longer do you plan on keeping her in the shadows? Until they find her again?”

Ethan’s eyes hardened. “Better the shadows than your kind of spotlight.”

The tension between them was thick enough to cut, each man silently measuring the other.

Finally, Nathan stepped back. “Like it or not, the contract gives me the right to take her back and I will. Not because I want to control her but because I want answers, and I think deep down, so do you.”

Ethan didn’t answer, but his gaze slid toward his sleeping sister, softening for just a moment.....Nathan caught it, the raw, unguarded protectiveness before Ethan masked it again.

“I’m not your enemy, Ethan,” Nathan said quietly. “But I’m not leaving her here to rot while the people who did this to her toast their success.”

Ethan’s reply was almost a whisper, but every word carried weight. “If you hurt her even once .... contract or not, I’ll finish what that river started.”

Nathan didn’t rise to the threat. Instead, he glanced at Matilda one last time before turning to leave, his mind already racing with questions he couldn’t afford not to answer.

Questions that began and ended with the same thought:

"If Ethan knows more than he’s saying, then what exactly is he protecting her life, or her secrets?"

..............

The rhythmic beeping of the heart monitor was the first thing Matilda heard when she woke again. The second was the sound of footsteps deliberate, unhurried crossing the room.

Her eyes blinked open, meeting the tall figure standing at her bedside. Nathan Cross, he is still here..... isn't this guy taking this husband role too seriously,....her mind quickly realising what she has just thought

"are you already seeing him as your husband, Matilda"

“You,” she quickly said, her voice rough from sleep. “Don’t you have an empire to run?, or Lance Inc has run out of projects to execute?”

He didn’t smile. “Not one more important than this.”

Matilda’s throat tightened. “This? What, exactly, is this to you?”

Nathan’s gaze didn’t waver. “This is me making sure you get your life back.”

She let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “My life?” She glanced around at the hospital room, at the IV in her arm, the pale cast of her skin reflected in the window. “Hate to break it to you, Mr. Cross but that life died two years ago. The whole world knows it...and so should you.”

“Matilda,” he said evenly, “you’re not dead and neither is the life you built. They just stole it from you.”

Her eyes flashed, sharp and unyielding. “And you care because…?”

“Because,” Nathan said, his voice dipping lower, “before you were the woman they tried to erase, you were the girl who used to run after me barefoot in the garden just to tell me about a book you’d read. You were the girl who made me promise you even swore you would marry me.”

The memory hit her like a stone in the chest... Her young 6 year old self running after 12 years old him shouting "I will definitely marry you Nathan Cross, I swear"

Shame almost made her run back into her quilt, she really said a lot of nonsense as a child

“Did you really trust the childish words of a 6 years old and..... how can you shamelessly stand here to fulfil a 22 year old promise.....and that was before you disappeared for 12 years,” she said coldly. “The man standing here now didn’t even call when my parents’ plane went down. Didn’t even—”

“I was in Japan when it happened,” he cut in, his jaw tight. “And by the time I came back, the first headline I saw was your accident....your death. I believed it for two years… until I saw your assistant boarding flights to Boston every month.”

Her breath hitched. “You’ve been… spying on me?”

“I’ve been looking for you,” he corrected. “Because there’s a contract one our parents signed and whether you like it or not, it binds us. Marrying me may be the only way to force the people who did this into the light.”

Her laugh this time was sharp enough to cut glass. “So this is about a business arrangement....a contract.”

“It’s about justice,” he said, stepping closer, his presence suddenly consuming the space between them. “It’s about not letting them win.”

"It's about bringing back my buttercup" but he didn't dare say out the last part lest she broke the vase beside her on his head

Her voice trembled now, though she masked it with anger. “And what if I don’t want justice? What if I just want peace?”

Nathan didn’t flinch. “Peace doesn’t come when the wolves are still at your door.”

For a moment, they simply stared at each other the weight of their shared past thick in the air, old familiarity warring with new walls.

Outside the door, unseen by either of them, Ethan stood in the hallway, one hand pressed against the wall. Every word had hit him like a hammer Nathan’s persistence, Matilda’s defiance and though his instinct was to walk in and break the moment, he stayed put.

Because in that silence after Nathan’s last words, Ethan realized something he didn’t want to admit Nathan might be the only one who could walk her back into the fire without letting it consume her.

Nathan broke the silence first. “Matilda, I’m taking you home.” he said and turned to leave.

Her eyes hardened. “I’m already home," but deep down, as she watched him turn to leave, a single, dangerous thought curled in her chest like smoke: "What if he’s right?