When She Fell || ONC 2025

Chapter 25

Years Later….

Nathan stood in a small, sunlit gallery tucked in a quiet street corner. It wasn’t crowded—just a handful of people wandering, pausing, admiring. On the far wall, framed under warm light, hung his first piece in years: a painting of a girl playing guitar on a rooftop under a star-stained sky.

It was titled "When the City Slept." It wasn’t just a painting. It was closure.
Behind him, the door creaked open.

"Didn't think you'd still be here," came a voice—familiar, light, and teasing.

Nathan turned to see Liam, casual as always, but no longer the same man he once was. His eyes were steadier now. Focused. Honest.

“I live here now,” Nathan said with a small smirk. “Might as well charge rent.”

Liam laughed, stepping in, glancing at the painting. “So, this is what the great Nathan paints when he’s not running an empire.”

Nathan’s smile dimmed, not with regret, but with clarity. “I didn’t want the empire. Jamie deserves it. He always did.”

There was a beat of silence between them, Liam took a look at the painting and said, “Not bad,”

“I’m still shocked you didn’t paint me,” Liam said mockingly.

Nathan smirked. “Didn’t want the gallery to shut down in horror.”

They laughed, and for a moment, it felt like the brotherhood they once had.

Then Liam’s tone shifted. Liam glanced around. “You still mad at me?”

“No,” Nathan said, turning back to his work. “Not mad. Just learning to trust you again… slowly."

“I can live with that.”

“I’m proud of you, Nate.”

Nathan nodded. “I’m proud of you too. You chose to change. That matters.”

And for the first time in a long time, there was peace between them. A pause.

Then Liam asked, quieter, “Do you think Ryna will ever forgive me completely?”

Nathan looked at him, thoughtful. “She already has. She just hasn’t told you yet.”

--

The soft chime of a café bell greeted Kiara as she entered. It was the same café where she and Nathan had once shared their first honest conversation. The tables were still cluttered with sketchbooks and half-drunk lattes, the walls still humming with quiet music and creativity. It felt like returning to a safe corner of a once-chaotic world.
She glanced around, expecting to be the first one here. But Jamie was already seated, waving with a crooked smile, two cups of coffee steaming in front of him.

“You’re early,” she said, sliding into the seat across from him.

“I thought I’d try this ‘being-responsible’ thing, you know what they say with great power comes great responsibility” Jamie replied with a shrug. “Still figuring it out.”

Kiara chuckled. “You’re doing okay.”

They sat in silence for a moment, the comfortable kind that only comes when two people have been through something unspeakably heavy together.

“Do you miss her?” Kiara asked gently.

Jamie looked out the window. “Sometimes… but not in the way you think. I miss the version I believed in. The woman who saved me when I was small and scared. But now I realize... she kept me small and scared.”