Elena POV
Elena stared at Nathan, waiting for him to explain what he meant by waiting three years to see her again.
Nathan walked to his desk and opened a drawer. He pulled out a small key and unlocked a hidden compartment in the wood. Inside was a photograph.
It was Elena. But not as Sophie Morgan. Not as Elena Park either. It was Elena three years ago wearing a silver mask that covered half her face. She was wearing a dress that cost more than her rent. She was smiling at someone standing next to her in the photograph.
A man in a dark suit. A man in a matching mask. A man whose eyes she recognized even through the mask.
Nathan.
"Nocturne," Nathan said quietly. "Three years ago. There was a masquerade event. Private. Exclusive. For people with money and power and secrets. I went because I wanted to disappear. I wanted to be someone other than the person Dimitri had made me. For one night I wanted to feel alive."
Elena's heart was pounding so hard she thought it might break through her ribs.
"You were there," Nathan continued. "You were wearing a silver mask and you looked like you were drowning just like I was. I sat next to you and you talked about burning the world down. You talked about justice and revenge and how unfair everything was. You talked like someone who understood pain. Real pain. The kind that doesn't go away."
Elena couldn't speak. She was frozen in place, watching her own history being told back to her.
"We spent the whole night together," Nathan said. His voice was barely a whisper. "We danced. We talked. We went to a private room. And for the first time since my family died, I felt something other than dead inside. You made me feel alive, Elena. You made me feel seen."
The memory was hitting her now. The masked stranger who touched her like she was precious. The man who listened to her anger and her fear without trying to fix it. The man who held her like she mattered. The man she'd woken up alone to find gone.
"I looked for you for weeks," Nathan said. "I tried every connection I had to find you. But you'd disappeared. You were like a ghost. Like you were never real. And I realized that maybe you weren't real. Maybe that night was just something I'd imagined because I was so desperate to feel something other than trapped."
Elena whispered, "You're lying."
"No," Nathan said. He turned his laptop toward her and pulled up security footage. "Watch."
The video showed Elena in her silver mask dancing with a man in a dark mask. It showed them talking. It showed them laughing. It showed them together in a private room where the man was touching her face like she was something fragile and beautiful.
It was him. It was definitely him. She recognized the way he moved. The way he listened. The way he looked at her like she was the only person in the world.
It was the man she'd been mourning for three years.
"When Marcus mentioned that a journalist was investigating my company," Nathan continued, "I knew. I knew it was you. It had to be you. Because it's been three years and I still think about that night. I still remember the way you felt in my arms. I still remember the way you laughed. I still remember waking up wondering if you were real."
Elena shook her head. This couldn't be happening. This couldn't be real.
"So when you applied for the job," Nathan said, "I hired you. Not because I wanted to keep you close for information. I hired you because I wanted another chance. I wanted to see if the woman who felt like home was still out there. I wanted to know if you remembered me at all."
Elena felt tears burning her eyes. She remembered. God help her, she remembered everything. The way his hands felt. The way his voice sounded. The way he'd made her believe for one night that the world wasn't completely broken.
"And when Dimitri threatened you," Nathan said, "I moved your mother to the best hospital in the country because I love you. I'm fighting Dimitri because loving you means protecting the people you love. I'm willing to destroy everything I've built because you matter more than anything else in my life."
Elena turned away from him. She couldn't look at his face. If she looked at his face, she would believe him. If she believed him, everything would fall apart.
"You came here to destroy me," Nathan said quietly. "You came here thinking I was a villain. But what if I'm not? What if I'm just a man who inherited a nightmare and has been waiting three years for someone to help him wake up?"
Elena turned back to face him. Her hands were shaking. Her voice was shaking.
"This doesn't change anything," Elena said. Her words sounded hollow. Desperate. "You're still running illegal operations. You're still guilty. You're still part of the problem."
Nathan nodded slowly. He understood. He understood that love and justice were colliding inside her, tearing her apart.
"I know," Nathan said quietly. His dark eyes held hers. "I know I'm guilty. I know I've broken laws. I know I've hurt people even if I didn't mean to. But I'm going to change that. I'm going to cooperate with federal agents. I'm going to turn over everything I have against Dimitri. I'm going to destroy him."
Nathan took a step toward her.
"And then I'm going to face justice for my own crimes," Nathan said. "I'm going to admit what I've done. I'm going to serve my time. I'm going to become someone you can be proud of. I'm going to do all of that because some things matter more than freedom. And you matter more than freedom, Elena. You've always mattered more."
Elena stood in his office and felt her entire world shifting. The man she'd come to destroy was the man she'd loved and lost. The villain she was hunting was actually being hunted by the one person who had the power to stop him. The choice she had to make wasn't between justice and love.
It was between both.
And there was no way to choose both without losing everything.