Building Her Throne Burying My Heart (Claire) novel Chapter 23

23 /90

The caller wasted no time telling me everything I’d never known.

Back then, when Claire’s family hit rock bottom and the business was about to go under, almost everyone turned their backs on them. That was when you really saw who cared and who didn’t. I should have been the one to stay. I was the man she loved, the one she thought she’d marry. But I left, just like everyone else. Not only did I leave, I hit her with one final blow. I didn’t say goodbye. I just sent her a message—the kind that leaves you empty—and then I disappeared.

But it didn’t stop there. While she was still reeling, everything got worse. Debt collectors found her father, Ingram, and beat him so badly he landed in the hospital. He already had health problems, and with the business falling apart, he couldn’t take it. He died not long after.

It all happened so fast. Claire barely had time to catch her breath from our sudden breakup before she lost her father. At the wake, those same men showed up, hounding her and her mother, demanding money, even forcing them to kneel and beg for more time. If one of Ingram’s old friends hadn’t stepped in, I don’t know what would’ve happened.

Overnight, the carefree, sheltered girl I knew had to grow up. She had to hold everything together for her mom and for the company. She couldn’t fall apart, even when all she probably wanted was to break down. She had to be strong, or at least pretend she was.

The caller kept going, telling me about the stranger who turned up out of nowhere with a huge sum of money. That anonymous donation got her through the worst of it. Without it, the Gates family never would have recovered.

But what Claire never found out was that I was the one who sent the money. I sold a kidney to the Charles family and donated the money to her, without ever putting my name on it.

“So do you get it now?” the caller said, voice cold and sharp. “You didn’t just break her heart. You shattered her soul. That bright, beautiful girl—she got stuck in that terrible summer because of you. Now, when she’s finally about to move on, you show up again, like nothing happened.”