Page 3 of The Prince's Secret Daughter
Helen nodded, keeping her expression neutral as she accepted the coffee. She could feel his gaze linger on her, his presence in the room a strange mix of familiarity and subtle discomfort. Nathan was a decade older than her, exuding a polished, effortless charm that made him hard to ignore. His reputation in the industry was undeniable, and yet… there was something about him.
He settled into the chair across from her desk with the casual grace of a man used to being admired. His features were handsome—broad, strong jaw, and those crisp, blue eyes— they lacked the sort of depth that would have made him memorable. Instead, Helen couldn’t shake the sense that he was a mannequin, a perfectly constructed figure designed to fit the mold of success, but missing something essential.
His smile was easy, practiced, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Not really. Helen found herself studying him, noting the way he adjusted his tie, every movement precise, too practiced. There was an odd softness to his face, a hint of something thatdulled the sharp edges of his conventional good looks. And yet, that softness only made the lack of substance more apparent.
Helen’s stomach tightened with the flicker of a thought she could never quite shake. Nathan, though he seemed pleasant enough, always left her feeling slightly unsettled. His attentions, though flattering, felt hollow, like they came with strings attached—strings she couldn’t quite see but could feel in the back of her mind.
He had invited her to dinner several times, his interest in her growing more apparent with each passing day. It was tempting, in a way, to accept. After all, she couldn’t deny the appeal of the lifestyle he seemed to offer, the success, the luxury that surrounded him. But every time she considered it, a wave of hesitation washed over her. She wasn’t sure if it was her instincts or simply her cautious nature, but something about Nathan didn’t sit right.
Was she being overly cautious? Her mind was filled with swirling doubts as she sat there, unsure of herself for the first time in a while. Was she overthinking this? Maybe he was just being friendly. But she couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that there was more—something she was missing, something that lingered just beyond the surface.
The image of a man flashed into her mind. A tall figure with piercing dark eyes, a rugged, muscled frame, and an intensity that seemed to burn through her. The memory hit her like a bolt of lightning, quick and hot, sending a shiver of both longing and fear down her spine. She quickly banished it, pushing it back to the dark recesses of her mind where it had lived for five years.
That man had once held her completely, seductively captive. He’d burned through her every defense, leaving her in a tangle of passion and need. But he was gone now. Disappeared into the abyss, without a word of explanation or closure. Gone, as if he had never existed.
Helen clenched her fists beneath the desk, forcing the thoughts away. It was time to move on. To let go of the past. She couldn’t keep being pulled back into that dangerous world of obsession and uncertainty. She had a new life now, new opportunities, new people in her life. There was no place for shadows from the past.
With a deep breath, Helen straightened and forced her attention back to the present, refocusing on Nathan’s eager expression. She forced her smile to brighten. “Yes,” she said, her voice steady. “Very ready. This deal seems like it should be profitable for both clients.” She added with genuine enthusiasm, “I wish I’d been on the team prior to this. It’s a solid opportunity.”
Nathan's smile widened at her response, and for a moment, she almost believed it was real. But that feeling of disquiet remained, tugging at the edges of her thoughts. It was time to dive into the deal. Time to push aside the past, time to focus on the future. She would keep her instincts in check, at least for now.
Nathan chuckled. “You’ll be in on all the meetings going forward so that you can learn how we work. Your role is…essential…to the success of the deal. And if this one goes through, you can broker the next deal.”
Helen’s smile wobbled. Had she imagined the slight pause?
Nonsense! Helen reprimanded herself. This was her moment. Today’s meeting would seal her role as a broker. Helen had worked hard to address the problems with the proposal that they would present to the client.
“Sounds wonderful. Thank you.” She already had several ideas for future projects. But she wanted to keep quiet until she knew how Nathan and Paul worked, focusing instead on this deal. Once she knew Nathan and Paul’s process, she’d present her ideas in their preferred format. Today’s meeting was sort of a training exercise for Helen, a way to prove to them that she knew her stuff.
“Enjoy your coffee,” Nathan replied and pushed himself out of the chair. “You’re going to need it. Today is going to be a marathon meeting.” He chuckled as he left her office.
Helen stared at the coffee for a moment, but didn’t take a sip. She knew that coffee was most people’s drug of choice, but Helen had given caffeine up when she’d become pregnant with Angela and, after getting over the miserable headaches, she’d discovered that she felt much better without coffee. In the past, she’d struggled to sleep at night and constantly felt achy the next day. But after giving up drinking coffee, she’d felt significantly better.
Sometimes, she pretended to drink coffee, but it was only to appear social. In reality, Helen only drank herbal tea. She grabbed her travel mug and took a long sip of her blueberry tea and turned back to her computer. She toggled over to a google maps page on her computer and typed in the address. Therewere pictures of the area printed out in the proposal, but Helen wanted to look at a larger view of the area.
That’s when she realized what was bothering her about the deal.
Helen's pen scratched furiously across the paper as she scribbled down some notes, her brow furrowing in concentration as she skimmed through the numbers they would be quoting to the client. She then recalculated the numbers with estimates based off of previous projects she’d worked on at her former firm. Despite the glossy images depicting a gleaming future for the site, she couldn't shake the feeling that something was amiss.
With a deepening sense of unease, Helen surveyed the online images and compared them to the images in the proposal, her gaze lingering on the online images that showed weather-beaten, time-worn buildings that stood as a silent red flag.
As she delved deeper into the financial details for today's meeting, Helen's heart skipped a beat. The amounts simply didn't add up. They were off by... millions of dollars. A cold dread settled in the pit of her stomach as she realized the magnitude of the discrepancy. This wasn't a minor error; it was a gaping chasm threatening to ruin the entire deal. How could she be the only one who seemed to have noticed? Had no one actually visited the site? Had no one else noticed that the surrounding buildings might collapse to rubble at the smallest sigh of distress?
Helen grabbed her notes and the binder, glanced at the time on her phone, then rushed down the hallway. She had hernotes pressed against her chest as she knocked on Paul’s door. It was open, but she waited until the older man looked up.
“Helen!” Paul called out. “Come in!” he said with a friendly smile and a wave. “We are just about to go into the meeting with Dark Angel Investments. Are you ready to dazzle?” He chuckled at his joke. “Nathan is eager to get these two clients together.” He winked at her as Helen walked deeper into his office. “You’re going to romance the client too, right?”
Helen paused, a flicker of concern dancing in her eyes as she pondered why Paul's words felt so unsettling. The way he had phrased his comment sent a shiver of warning down her spine, a sensation that made her skin crawl as if she had just dropped into a cesspool of sleaze.
A sudden urge to cleanse herself washed over her, as if she needed to scrub away the lingering residue of Paul's insinuations. Yet, despite the discomfort his words evoked, she couldn't deny the underlying truth—she wanted to impress the clients, to leave them awestruck by her abilities. But it wasn't with superficial charm or artificial allure that she sought to dazzle them; it was with the brilliance of her intellect, the depth of her knowledge, and the strength of her integrity.
Paul's comment had struck a discordant chord within her, suggesting a means of captivation that felt cheap and degrading. She refused to compromise her principles, to succumb to the notion that her worth lay in anything other than her merit and capability. As she squared her shoulders and prepared to face the impending meeting, Helen vowed to assert herself on her own terms, to impress the clients with the substance of her expertise rather than the shallowness of superficial charm.
Shaking off her concerns, she focused on the reason for her visit. “Paul, I think we might have a problem with this deal.” She pulled her new calculations out and handed them to him. Paul rested a hip on the corner of his wooden desk as he glanced over her calculations, then shook his head, handing them back to her.
“These are wrong, Helen,” he said with a low, irritated growl.
Helen straightened and shook her head. “Paul, I don’t think that the presentation today is right. I did some digging on the property’s history and I think that it’s going to take a great deal more money on the buyer’s side to turn this property into a profitable investment.” She pointed to the images she’d printed out of the street view. “Look at this intersection. There aren’t any businesses around. That means–”
