Chapter 15 - Marcus Without the StoryMarcus asked to speak with Nia again.
This time she agreed.
Not privately.
Not at home.
At Andrea’s office.
He arrived looking tired.
His transplant medication had changed his face slightly, rounding it from steroids.
Nia hated that she noticed.
Hated that part of her still tracked his health automatically.
“How are your labs?” she asked before she could stop herself.
Marcus looked surprised.
“Good.”
Nia nodded once.
Then hated herself for caring.
Marcus seemed to understand.
“You don’t have to ask.”
“I know.”
The meeting began.
Thomas Greene placed a proposal on the table.
Marcus would consent to the immediate return of the approximately $146,000 held in Morrow Ridge.
He would surrender his twenty-percent ownership interest in Nia Carter Design Studio as part of a global settlement, subject to valuation and divorce negotiations.
He would waive any claim to specific company intellectual property.
He would cooperate with tax corrections.
In return, he wanted Nia to consider resolving financial disputes civilly wherever legally possible.
Andrea spoke before Nia could.
“Your client does not control whether prosecutors act on an insurance-fraud referral.”
Thomas nodded.
“We understand.”
Marcus looked at Nia.
“I’m not asking you to lie.”
“Good.”
“I’m trying to fix what I can.”
Nia stared.
“You can’t fix it.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She leaned forward.
“You keep thinking this is a balance sheet. Return enough money. Give back enough equity. Sign enough papers. Then somehow the account closes.”
Marcus looked down.
“I know the marriage is over.”
“That isn’t the only thing.”
He met her eyes.
Nia continued.
“You turned my trust into financing.”
Marcus flinched.
“You used my mother’s death to fund a bad investment.”
“I never thought of it like that.”
“That’s because you stopped thinking about where money came from once you wanted it.”
“I thought I could replace it.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because it’s true.”
“No. It means you believed restitution before discovery would erase theft.”
Marcus shut his eyes.
Nia watched him.
For years she had loved his ability to stay calm during crisis.
Now she saw the other side.
Marcus could compartmentalize almost anything.
Fear.
Shame.
Debt.
Infidelity.
He placed each problem in a separate room and convinced himself the house was still standing.
“Why Kiara?” Nia asked.
Thomas shifted.
Andrea glanced at her but did not interrupt.
Marcus took a long breath.
“She came to me scared.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“She trusted me.”
“So did I.”
“I know.”
Nia waited.
Marcus rubbed his beard.
“I felt useful to her.”
Nia laughed softly.
“You were dying and needed somebody to make you feel useful.”
His eyes filled.
“Yes.”
The answer was so simple it almost hurt.
Nia sat back.
Marcus continued.
“With you, everything became about what you had to do for me.”
“You mean saving your life?”
“I’m not blaming you.”
“You’re close.”
“I hated what I became.”
“What?”
“Dependent.”
His voice cracked.
“You handled appointments. Insurance. Meals. The business when I couldn’t work. Then you matched.”
Nia stared.
“And that made you resent me?”
“Yes.”
The honesty was brutal.
Marcus looked ashamed.
“I was grateful too.”
“How generous.”
“I know how it sounds.”
“No. You know how it is.”
Marcus nodded.
“With Kiara, I could solve something. Her debt. Her paperwork. She needed me.”
Nia remembered Lorraine’s note.
Don’t confuse being needed with being loved.
Their mother had written it for Nia, but perhaps Marcus needed it more.
“And then you slept together.”
“Yes.”
“Did you love her?”
Marcus hesitated.
“I cared about her.”
“Did you tell her you loved her?”
“Yes.”
“Did you mean it?”
“At moments.”
Nia’s face tightened.
“At moments.”
Marcus looked miserable.
“I don’t know how to explain it better.”
“Try truth.”
“I felt trapped in my body, trapped in debt, trapped by what I’d done. Kiara knew the worst parts of me already.”
“Because she was helping you hide them.”
“Yes.”
“And instead of that making you ashamed, it made you intimate.”
Marcus looked down.
“Yes.”
Nia finally understood the chemistry she had been trying to solve.
Marcus and Kiara did not fall in love despite their secrets.
The secrets created the relationship.
Neither had to perform goodness for the other.
They mistook mutual concealment for acceptance.
Nia said, “And me?”
Marcus looked up.
“What about you?”
“What did I represent?”
His eyes filled.
“Everything I was afraid to lose.”
Nia’s throat tightened despite herself.
“Then why were you planning to leave?”
“Because I thought once you knew the truth, you’d hate me.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
“No. You decided to leave me before I could reject you.”
Marcus went still.
Nia saw the realization.
He had built the EXIT folder not only to escape.
To control who abandoned whom.
“If I found out,” Nia said, “you would become the man I left.”
Marcus’s eyes dropped.
“So you planned to become the man who left me first.”
He did not answer.
He did not need to.
Nia stood.
The meeting was over emotionally, even if attorneys still had pages to discuss.
Marcus said, “Nia.”
She paused.
“I am sorry.”
She turned.
For once, he did not add an explanation.
No illness.
No fear.
No money.
No Kiara.
Just the words.
Nia believed he meant them.
That changed nothing.
“I know,” she said.
Marcus flinched because she used Kiara’s phrase.
Nia continued.
“Now you get to be sorry without making me responsible for what happens to you.”
She left.
In the hallway, her hands began shaking.
Andrea caught up.
“You okay?”
Nia breathed.
“Yes.”
Then corrected herself.
“No.”
Andrea waited.
Nia smiled faintly.
“But I will be.”
Her phone buzzed.
Kiara’s name.
Nia almost ignored it.
Then she saw the message.
Marcus came to my apartment last night. I didn’t let him in. He said he wants us to raise the baby together. I told him no.
Nia stared.
Another relationship collapsing.
But this time she felt no satisfaction.
Only exhaustion.
Then a second message arrived.
I finally understand that choosing him now would mean building my child’s home out of the same lie that destroyed yours.
Nia read it twice.
May you like
![92 The Girl They Called Broke Was a Billionaire’s Daughter—But Her Father’s Arrival Exposed a Secret Powerful People Had Buried for Years]](https://cdn.treeiq.biz/site_590/2026/11/clone-0-0915d882-53d7-4d17-b43a-a010ca1a1068.webp)
She still did not respond.
But for the first time, she did not delete the message.
Related Stories
