“Someone leaked it,” Natalie whispered. “Everything. The pregnancy, Carter… all of it. My career is over.”
By noon, she’d lost four clients.
By evening, she’d lost eight more.
The translation world was small. Reputation mattered.
No one wanted to be associated with a tabloid scandal.
Her phone rang.
“Did you see?” she asked without preamble when she answered.
“I saw,” Carter said. “I’m so sorry. I have lawyers working on it. We’ll find out who leaked it. We’ll—”
“It doesn’t matter who leaked it,” she said, pacing her tiny bedroom. “The damage is done. You can’t make people unread those articles.”
“I’ll fix this,” he insisted. “I promise.”
“How?” she demanded. “You can’t control what people think. You can’t put my name back in some box and pretend this didn’t happen.”
There was a knock at her front door.
“Someone’s here,” she said. “I have to go.”
She hung up before he could answer.
The “someone” at the door was Charlotte.
She looked like she’d been crying.
That should have been Natalie’s first clue.
“I’m so sorry,” Charlotte said immediately, stepping inside. “I never thought it would blow up like this. I thought—”
“Wait,” Natalie said, her blood running cold. “You thought what?”
She stared.
“Charlotte,” she whispered. “What did you do?”
Charlotte’s face crumpled.
“I told someone,” she said. “Just one person. I thought they’d keep it quiet. I didn’t think they’d go to the press.”
“You told someone,” Natalie repeated. “About my pregnancy. About Carter.”
“Not like that,” Charlotte protested. “I just… I needed to talk to somebody. I was scared for you.”
“Why?” Natalie demanded. “Why would you do that?”
Charlotte’s expression shifted—guilt morphing into something harder.
“Because you don’t belong with him,” she said. “You know you don’t. He’s Carter Sullivan. He needs someone from his world. Someone who understands the pressure, the expectations—”
“Someone like you,” Natalie said slowly.
The realization hit like a freight train.
“Oh my God,” she whispered. “You’re in love with him.”
“Don’t make it sound awful,” Charlotte snapped. “I’ve known Carter since we were kids. We grew up together. Our families vacation together in the Hamptons. We make sense. And then you show up at one gala and suddenly he can’t see anyone else.”
Her eyes flashed.
“Do you know how that feels?” she demanded. “To watch the man you’ve loved for years fall for someone who doesn’t even belong in his world?”
“So you destroyed my reputation,” Natalie said quietly. “You tanked my career. All because you were jealous.”
“I’m not jealous,” Charlotte insisted. “I’m realistic. You’re a translator from Brooklyn who lives with her grandmother. He’s a billionaire CEO. What kind of life do you think you’ll have together? You’ll always be the girl who got pregnant. That baby will always be the ‘mistake’ that forced his hand. Is that what you want for your child?”
Each word was a knife.
