Chapter 9 - The Shadow at the Gate
Austin was a city of heat and ambition,
a stark contrast to the cold mountains of Boulder.
Marcus checked into a luxury hotel downtown,
his mind focused on one thing:
the Vance Corp headquarters.
He spent the first day watching the building from a nearby café.
He saw the security,
the sleek glass exterior,
and the hundreds of employees who moved with a purpose he envied.
At 5:00 p.m.,
a black SUV pulled out of the underground garage.
He followed it at a distance,
his heart hammering against his ribs.
The car led him to a high-end private school on the outskirts of the city.
He watched from behind the tinted windows of his rental car.
He saw me.
I was standing by the gate,
talking to another mother,
laughing as the school doors opened.
Then,
he saw them.
The four of them came running out,
their backpacks bouncing on their shoulders.
They converged on me like a swarm of bees,
each one vying for my attention.
I knelt down,
hugging all four at once,
my face lighting up in a way that he hadn't seen in eight years.
He saw Noah show me a paper with a gold star.
He saw Sophia give me a crumpled dandelion.
He saw the way they looked at me—
with total,
unshakable trust.
Marcus felt a sharp,
stabbing pain in his chest.
That should have been him.
He should have been the one hearing about their day.
He should have been the one they ran to.
He waited until we had driven away before he stepped out of the car.
He walked toward the school gate,
feeling like a ghost haunting his own life.
A security guard immediately stepped in his path.
"Can I help you,
sir?"
the man asked,
his eyes taking in Marcus’s expensive suit and desperate expression.
"I...
I'm a friend of Kesha Vance,"
Marcus lied.
The guard’s expression didn't soften.
"Ms. Vance has a very specific list of approved contacts,
sir.
Your name isn't on it."
Marcus felt the sting of exclusion.
He was a Reynolds.
He was used to doors opening for him.
But here,
in my world,
he was nobody.
He went back to his hotel and started drinking.
He realized that he couldn't just walk up to me.
I had built a wall of steel and glass around my life.
He needed a way in.
He needed a leverage point.
He pulled out his laptop and began searching for any weakness in Vance Corp.
He looked for lawsuits,
for financial discrepancies,
for anything he could use to force me to the table.
But the company was airtight.
It was as perfect as the woman who ran it.
As the sun set over Austin,
Marcus realized that the only way to get to me was to humiliate himself.
He would have to beg.
May you like
And for a man who had never apologized in his life,
that was a fate worse than death.
