Chapter 20
When Matthew suggested having his own twin brother replace him because he was “bored,” Nathan found it laughably absurd. He wanted to crack open his brother’s skull to examine what garbage could possibly be rattling around inside.
Yet beneath his disgust, a darker voice whispered: This is your chance. Not just to step into her life, but to help Emma transition away from Matthew painlessly.
After all, learning about Matthew’s emotional infidelity would devastate her.
But if he could redirect her attention, make her fall for him instead… she’d be spared that pain.
This temptation grew like a vine in darkness, threatening to strangle the moral code Nathan had lived by his entire life.
She was his brother’s girlfriend – a line that should never be crossed. Nathan had always been the perfect son, the flawless heir, never stepping out of bounds.
He decided to meet Emma once, just once. If his conscience couldn’t bear it, he’d refuse Matthew’s
request.
But there was no “if.”
The moment she smiled and linked her arm through his, every principle he’d built his life upon crumbled
into dust.
He became addicted to her presence, craving more with each passing day. Sometimes he caught himself hoping Matthew would never return, that he could keep playing this role indefinitely. The thought should have horrified him, but instead it thrilled him.
In his darkest moments, Nathan saw himself as a serpent, wanting nothing more than to coil around her completely, binding them together until there was no separation between where he ended and she
began.
These shadowy desires remained his secret, hidden beneath his perfect exterior.
He’d known it was wrong from the start. The moral brother, the responsible son, the ethical businessman – all these personas he’d crafted over the years meant nothing in the face of his growing obsession.
Each day pretending to be Matthew only made him want to be himself with her more desperately.
These thoughts haunted him at night: his brother’s betrayal becoming his opportunity, his noble intentions twisting into selfish desire, his carefully maintained image cracking to reveal something darker
Chapter 20
underneath.
But he couldn’t stop himself, didn’t want to stop himself.
Because for the first time in his life, Natha
