Chapter 5 – What Nathan Actually Thought

“I’m not upset you didn’t tell me right away,” Nathan said, once Charlotte finished explaining, watching her carefully for the reaction she was clearly bracing for. “I understand why you’d want to know if people actually liked you for yourself, before they knew about the money.”

“Most people don’t react that calmly,” Charlotte admitted, genuinely relieved despite herself. “Usually it’s either resentment about the deception or a very sudden, very obvious shift in how they treat me.”

“I’ve known you for four months as the person who remembers my coffee order and asks real questions about my day,” Nathan said. “That doesn’t stop being true just because you also happen to own half of downtown Millbrook. Seems like a pretty simple thing to hold both facts at once, honestly.”

Charlotte, who had spent two decades in relationships and friendships complicated by exactly the kind of shift Nathan was describing avoiding, found herself genuinely, unexpectedly moved by the straightforward simplicity of his response.

“I did buy the block partly for sentimental reasons,” she admitted. “My family lost this exact diner, decades ago, to a foreclosure not so different from the one Frank just faced. I think some part of me needed to fix that history, even anonymously.”

“That’s not a bad reason to buy a diner,” Nathan said. “Better than most reasons rich people usually have, I’d imagine.”