After the Fall A Leap into a Stranger's Arms novel Chapter 46

Something didn’t add up. Catherine was supposed to be in France studying art, so how had she suddenly ended up at Veridian?

Had she fooled everyone? Pretending to go to Polaris for art, while secretly enrolling at Veridian? Shirley stared at Catherine’s profile, watching as she shifted from artist to tech prodigy in the blink of an eye. Now this was interesting. Sometimes, when your opponent was too weak, the whole game just lost its flavor.

Arms folded, Shirley let out a soft, cold laugh as she looked at the screen. “Catherine, even if you really are Nancy, so what? I’ve already finished Resonance AI. Do you honestly think you can beat me? You’ll always be playing catch-up.”

She quickly fixed her expression and left the office. She could just picture Waldo right now, completely blindsided. He was probably rushing off to confront Catherine. The way Catherine had hidden the truth all these years must’ve broken his heart. Five years together, five years of lies—no one would take that well. Let those two exes keep hurting each other. It was what they did best.

***

Sprawled on her living room sofa, Catherine stretched and rubbed her eyes. She wouldn’t officially start at Nexus Dynamics until next Monday, so for now, her “office” was wherever she could balance her laptop. That’s when her new phone buzzed. She didn’t even need to check. That number was burned into her memory. Waldo.

How did he even get this number? What did he want now?

She picked up, her voice flat and a little annoyed. “Yeah?”

“Catherine, where are you? I need to see you.” Waldo sounded tense, almost desperate.

“If you’ve got something to say, just spit it out,” she replied, not bothering to hide her irritation.

“Catherine, eight years ago, you said you were going to Polaris for art. Why did you end up at Veridian studying tech? Is it true—are you Nancy?” His voice was ragged, emotions all over the place.

“You never really wanted to know me. You didn’t care about what I thought, or what I wanted. I spent five years trying to be what you wanted, and only now do I see how ridiculous that was.”

“That’s not it,” Waldo insisted, desperate. “I just wanted to protect you. I didn’t want you in the spotlight—”

“Oh, so you wanted to keep me like a pet? Play with me when you felt like it, toss me aside when I wasn’t useful, and let me fend for myself?” Catherine’s voice dripped with sarcasm.

“Catherine, you’ve got it wrong!” He sounded panicked now. “I know I was too possessive. I just… I loved you so much, I couldn’t help it—”

Of course Waldo was controlling. For a long time, Catherine thought that meant he cared, but after being with Lawrence, she realized love meant supporting someone, letting them be who they really are, not locking them up and calling it protection.