Billionaire Boss Went On A Blind Date — Unaware He Was The One Who Left Her 10 Years Ago
The Ten-Year Secret
The challenge in her voice was unmistakable. But Nathan saw beyond it to the hurt that still lingered after all these years.
He reached across the table, not quite touching her hand but close enough that she could bridge the distance if she chose. “What if I told you I made the wrong choice ten years ago?”
Her eyes widened fractionally, guard dropping for a split second before skepticism returned. “I’d say it’s convenient timing for a revelation, with your company in crisis and your legacy at stake.”
He acknowledged. “Perhaps,”
“Or maybe seeing you again has forced me to recognize what all this success has cost.”
Audrey’s phone chimed with a text notification. She glanced at it, then back at Nathan with a strange mix of emotion crossing her face.
She said quietly. “Speaking of revelations,”
“There’s something I need to tell you, Nathan. Something I should have told you the moment I walked in.”
The gravity in her tone sent a chill down his spine. “What is it?”
She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders as if preparing for battle. “You didn’t just leave me ten years ago, Nathan. You left us.”
Nathan repeated, the single syllable hanging between them as his mind raced to comprehend her meaning. “Us?”
The restaurant around them seemed to fade into a distant blur as he focused entirely on Audrey’s face. He searched for confirmation of what his heart already suspected.
She said softly, meeting his gaze with unwavering steadiness despite the slight tremor in her hands. “Yes,”
“Us.”
Time seemed to stretch and compress simultaneously as understanding dawned. He whispered, his voice barely audible even to himself. “You were pregnant,”
“When I left.”
Audrey nodded once, her composure remarkable given the magnitude of her revelation. “I found out three days after you disappeared to New York.”
“I was going to call you that night, but then your note arrived instead.”
The floor beneath Nathan seemed to tilt. His carefully constructed world—the empire he’d built, the sacrifices he’d justified, the narrative he’d told himself about doing what was best for everyone—all of it collapsed under the weight of this new reality.
He stated, not a question but an attempt to solidify this staggering truth in his mind. “We have a child.”
Audrey corrected, her expression softening slightly. “We have a daughter,”
“Her name is Abigail. She’s nine, almost ten.”
Nathan repeated, testing the name of a daughter he hadn’t known existed until this moment. “Abigail.”
A daughter who had been growing, learning, living just a few hours away from him for nearly a decade. A wave of emotions crashed through him—shock, grief, anger, longing—too complex to untangle.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
A flash of indignation crossed Audrey’s features. “You left me a note, Nathan. Three sentences ending our engagement and five years together.”
“You changed your number. You made it abundantly clear that your new life had no room for me.”
“But a child—”
She interrupted, leaning forward. “Yes, a child!”
“A child needs stability, commitment, presence. All things you explicitly rejected when you walked away.”
“What was I supposed to do? Chase after you? Use her as leverage to force you into a life you didn’t want?”
The accusation stung, but Nathan couldn’t deny its underlying truth. The man he had been ten years ago had ruthlessly excised anything that threatened his ambition, including the woman he’d once promised to love forever.
He insisted, even as part of him recognized the hypocrisy of his indignation. “I had a right to know,”
Audrey conceded, her tone softening slightly. “Perhaps,”
“But I had a responsibility to protect her. After the first year, I tried to find you.”
“I sent a letter to Reed Enterprises when the company made its first major acquisition. It came back unopened.”
Nathan closed his eyes briefly, remembering the strict instructions he’d given his first assistant about personal correspondence. Everything had been filtered, prioritized based on business value.
“I never saw it.”
“I know that now. Back then, it felt like another rejection.”
Audrey took a careful sip of water. “When Abby was three, I consulted a lawyer about formally establishing paternity and potential custody arrangements.”
“He advised me that, given your complete absence and lack of interest, pursuing you might only disrupt the stable life I’d built for her.”
“So you just decided I would never know my own daughter?”
Despite his effort to remain calm, hurt and anger edged into his voice.
Audrey said firmly. “No,”
“I decided to wait until I could be certain that knowing you would benefit her rather than harm her.”
“Your life has been splashed across business magazines and tabloids for years, Nathan.”
“The workaholic CEO, the serial dater who never commits, the ruthless negotiator who sacrifices everything for the bottom line.”
Each description landed like a physical blow. It was not because they were untrue, but because they reflected exactly the image he’d cultivated.
The man who had left Audrey had become exactly who he’d intended to be. Successful, powerful, unencumbered by emotional attachments that might limit his rise.
He asked, his voice rough with emotion he couldn’t suppress. “Does she know about me?”
Audrey nodded. “She knows your name. That you’re her biological father.”
“That you and I were engaged once, but separated before she was born.”
“I’ve never spoken negatively about you to her, Nathan. I promised myself I wouldn’t do that to either of you.”
A hollow laugh escaped him. “So she knows her father abandoned her mother and never looked back. Hardly a glowing recommendation.”
Audrey corrected gently. “She knows her father is a successful businessman who built something significant,”
“I’ve shown her articles about Reed Enterprises’ environmental initiatives. She’s proud of that connection, even if it’s distant.”
The thought of his daughter reading about him, forming opinions about a father she’d never met, sent a fresh wave of loss through him. Ten years of firsts he’d missed: first steps, first words, first day of school, birthdays, and Christmases.
He asked finally, struggling to process the torrent of emotions threatening to overwhelm him. “Why tell me now?”
Audrey reached into her purse and withdrew her phone, unlocking it before sliding it across the table. “This is why.”
The screen displayed a text message from a contact saved as ‘Mom’. “Abby’s fever is up to 103 again. Doctor says we should take her to the ER if it doesn’t come down in the next hour. Don’t worry yet, but thought you should know.”
Fresh concern jolted through Nathan as he looked up from the message. “She’s sick.”
Audrey explained, her composure finally cracking to reveal the worry beneath. “She has a persistent infection that hasn’t responded to antibiotics.”
“This is the third round of high fevers in two weeks. Her pediatrician ordered additional tests yesterday.”
Nathan couldn’t keep the accusation from his voice. “Why are you here instead of with her?”
Audrey replied, reclaiming her phone. “Because she’s asking questions I can’t answer anymore,”
“Questions about family medical history, whether there are genetic conditions she should know about—things that become increasingly relevant as the doctors search for explanations.”
Understanding dawned. “You need my medical information.”
Audrey admitted. “Yes,”
“But it’s more than that. She’s been asking about you more frequently.”
“Wanting to know why you’ve never tried to contact her, whether you know she exists, if you’ve ever asked about her.”
“I’ve run out of gentle ways to explain your absence.”
Shame washed over Nathan, so acute it was almost physical. “I had no idea,”
He said, the inadequacy of the words painful even to his own ears.
Audrey acknowledged. “I know that,”
“That’s why I agreed to Charlotte’s setup. Abby deserves better than half-truths, and you deserve to know about her.”
“Whatever else has happened between us, that much is true.”
