Chapter 3 - The Billionaire’s Shift
Over the next few weeks, the atmosphere at Reed House began to shift. It began with Nathan asking Claire to simply... talk. Not about the house, not about his fortune, but about the world outside his iron gates.
Claire was wary. She saw the way the estate lawyers hovered, the way the board members looked at Nathan with hungry eyes, waiting for him to step down or sell the holdings. They didn't care about his grief; they cared about his assets.
Nathan began to notice it, too. He saw how Claire treated the house—not as a museum of his wife’s belongings, but as a living place. She didn't walk on eggshells; she cleaned with a pride that reminded him of Abigail.
“Why are you still here, Claire?” he asked one evening as she finished polishing the silver. “You’re overqualified for this. You have a degree in accounting, don't you? I saw it on your file.”
“I do,” Claire said, setting the cloth down. “But I also have a four-year-old daughter and a broken car. I don't have the luxury of waiting for the perfect job. I have to be where the money is.”
“And where is the money?”
May you like
“It’s with you, Mr. Reed. But you don't seem to be using it to live.”
Her bluntness shocked him, but it also woke him up.
