After I Died for Justice, He Chased Me for Years

Chapter 5

When Nathan caught sight of Jillian's red-rimmed eyes, an unexpected tightness squeezed at his chest. "You heard all of that?"

Jillian nodded, forcing down the roiling mess of emotions churning in her chest. "I'm sorry for being such a burden to you these days."

"We..."

She paused for a long, heavy beat, then scrawled the final few words with a trembling hand: "Let's break up."

The second those three words registered, Nathan's face twisted sharply. "Do you have any idea what you're saying?"

Jillian knew perfectly well what she was doing. She wanted to be Nathan's lover, not a cage trapping him where he didn't want to be.

"I can take care of myself. I lived alone just fine before I came back, after all."

Nathan's knuckles turned white where he gripped the door handle. "You're sure about this?"

Jillian dropped her gaze and pulled out the key Nathan had once given her.

She still remembered what he'd said when he handed it to her six years ago. "I'll always be here waiting for you. This place will always be your home, and you can come back whenever you want."

Now, she'd only used that key three times, and she was already giving it back.

Shoving down the bitter ache and gnawing reluctance, she held the key out to Nathan.

The silver key glinted harshly in her calloused palm, almost painful to look at.

Nathan's expression darkened again and again, his thin lips pressed into a tight line before he bit out two words: "Suit yourself."

Jillian forced a wobbly smile, but the second she turned away, her eyes flooded with tears.

By the time she made it back to the bedroom, her cheeks were already cold with silent tears.

She dragged her gaze slowly over every trace of Nathan in the room, committing every little detail of him to memory, as if she could etch it permanently into her mind.

Just then, Nina's voice drifted in from the living room. "Oh, I don't have a key to this place, Brother Nathan. Can you give that one to me?"

Dead silence followed. When Jillian didn't hear Nathan's answer, she couldn't stop herself from glancing over.

Her stomach dropped, and she watched as he pressed the key straight into Nina's hand.

Her eyes burned with fresh tears, and she immediately snapped her gaze back to packing her things.

Half an hour later, she hefted the same suitcase she'd arrived with and walked out alone, with Nathan's eyes fixed on her back the whole time.

Once she left the residential complex, Jillian stood frozen on the street corner, with no clue where to go next.

Her undercover status meant she couldn't move into the house her parents had left her. Jake was gone, and she had no other friends to turn to.

The sun was shining bright, and the streets hummed with chatter and bustle, but all Jillian could feel was an inescapable, bone-deep cold and loneliness.

Finally, she found a small studio apartment to rent at the end of the street. It was close to Nathan's place, which would make it easier to keep an eye on Nina.

For the next two weeks, Jillian kept a close eye on Nina under the radar, and noticed she met up with a masked man every three days like clockwork.

Today, finally, the masked man tugged his mask off.

One look at the thick, jagged scar slashing across his face, and Jillian recognized him instantly—this was Finn Taylor, the secret third-in-command of the Taylor Group.

She scrambled to pull out her phone to capture the scene, but only managed to snap a shot of the scarred man's side profile. She could only watch helplessly as Nina and Finn went their separate ways, so she sent the photo to Nathan first.

One minute passed, then two.

The message went completely unanswered, as if it had been dropped into the bottom of the ocean.

She headed over to Nathan's place to look for him instead, but when she rapped her knuckles against the door, there was no sound from inside at all.

She'd knocked until her knuckles ached and gotten no answer, and there was still no reply to her text, so Jillian had no choice but to wait by the door.

Six hours dragged by, and night fell thick over Lirak City, swallowing every last sliver of daylight.

It was nearly midnight when Nathan finally showed up, every inch of him reeking of bone-deep exhaustion.

He froze the second he spotted Jillian. "What are you doing here?"

Jillian blinked her dry, stinging eyes and held up her phone, shoving the photo on the screen right in front of him. "Nina has been meeting with the fugitive Finn these past few days. I only managed to get a shot of Finn."

Nathan glanced at the picture, his jaw tightening so fast you could almost hear his molars grind, irritation rolling off him in waves. "I told you we already looked into Nina, didn't I? Why do you keep hounding her like this?"

His sharp, accusatory tone sent a sharp twinge straight through Jillian's chest. She fumbled to type out her response in a rush, fingers flying over the screen. "She holds a high position in the Taylor Corporation. I saw her involved in criminal activities with my own two eyes when I was undercover."

But Nathan's face was as cold as a block of ice, no trace of warmth left. "What, you think just because you saw something with your own eyes it's automatically true? You've never made a mistake before?"

The raw, roiling emotion blazing in his eyes caught Jillian completely off guard. "What are you talking about?"

His dark eyes glinted with ice-cold fury, every word sharp enough to slice steel. "Two years ago, Jake died because of the fake intel you sent back!"