AN: I know, I haven't updated the other two stories yet, but this one just wouldn't let go of me and I had to write another chapter. I've got the beginnings to updates for the other stories, they'll be coming shortly, I promise. Hope y'all like this one, the last chapter was hard to write but I'm thankful it was received so well.
Thank you to everyone who updated! I love y'all! They seriously make my day, and help fuel the creative fires. Keep em coming! xo Z
"Brooke! I'm starving, I need a break!" Nathan was trapped behind a wall of boxes that had slowly been stacking up in the hallway. They were two weeks out from flying back to Tree Hill, and Brooke was on the war path.
"Well too bad Nate! We need to get all these boxes into the moving crates before the moving company shows up to tow them away! We're running out of time here! Besides, where's Lucas?" Brooke wasn't even visible over the brown towers that filled her house. All Nathan had to go off was the sound of her voice to pinpoint her general location.
"Lucas went to go get more tape and a fresh set of Sharpies. If someone hadn't been so hell bent on labeling every damn side of every damn box, we'd have been half way done by now!"
"Oh stop whining ya pussy! Just stack boxes Nate, the longer you stand there gabbing the longer it'll take before you get to eat!" Brooke's footsteps could be heard as she walked away, muttering something about how good help was hard to find nowadays.
"I heard that!" Nathan shouted after her, sighing when she didn't even bother to laugh or throw a snide comment back at him. "Wow, she really does turn into a royal bitch when things aren't going according to plan," he said to no one in particular, picking up another box. Nathan's muscles protested the strain when he tried to lift two at once; they'd been going at it since six that morning, and he was plain exhausted.
"That's it Brooke! I'm going on strike! I'm calling the movers union! I refuse to work until I have food and a drink!" Nathan tried to yell over the boxes, jumping up in an effort to get his voice to carry over the sea of brown. However, not even a huff greeted his declaration, and Nathan knew it was a lost cause.
The sound of the front door opening and closing sounded from the other side of the house, and Nathan breathed a sigh of relief. Lucas would get him out of this mess.
"Luke! Man! Lend a brother some help here! Your woman's gone nuts!" Nathan was shouting again, but this time he was trying to find a way past the boxes that Brooke had been piling up. "Shit! She trapped me!"
Brooke's laughter bubbled up from somewhere in the recesses of the house, and Nathan couldn't help but grin in response. Brooke Davis was nothing but clever.
"Nate? Where are you? I thought I heard you over here…" Lucas had deposited his bags on the table in the now empty kitchen and went in search of the other Scott brother, only to come up against the very same boxes Nathan was currently trying to navigate.
"My point exactly! You can't see the man for the boxes!"
"Don't you mean the forest for the trees? Wave a hand or something man, seriously, I can't see you," Lucas said, barely controlling his laughter at the insanity of the whole situation. When a hand popped up six rows back and two columns to his right, Lucas lost the fight and busted out laughing. He shifted boxes until a path was cleared and Nathan came tumbling out of the hallway.
"Dude, seriously, Brooke needs to cool it on the whole packing deal. We're running out of room to stack the damn boxes!"
"Ha, you have that conversation. In case you don't remember, the last time I told Brooke to slow down on the packing she nearly took my head off."
"Oh come on boys, I wasn't that bad," Brooke answered, popping up around a corner and scaring them both.
"Holy shit Brooke! You can't do that to a guy! You scared the ever lovin' daylights out of us!" Both men had jumped a good foot in the air, and Brooke couldn't help but giggle at the reaction.
"Sorry Nate, but seriously, you should relax. Come on, Luke brought lunch, and if I heard you right through all the whining, you said you were starving," Brooke spoke, that smart ass look in her eyes and that cock sure grin on her lips. Lucas and Nathan shook their heads, knowing full well that they were on the losing end of the argument with Brooke.
"And you plan on living with her? Good luck man," Nathan whispered to Lucas, having waited until Brooke was around the corner.
"I heard that Nathan Scott! Don't make me tell Haley on you!" He just groaned in response and Lucas laughed, placing a commiserating hand on his shoulder.
-
"Mr. Roskins, Brooke-" the poor secretary was shoved to the side as Brooke pushed her way into the office.
"Since when did I need to schedule an appointment to see you?" Brooke was upset, not quite sure yet on whether or not she wanted to be pissed.
"It's alright Jane. Ms. Davis can stay," Alcott said, completely ignoring the clearly frustrated woman currently tapping her elegantly shoed foot on his rather expensive Italian carpet. Alcott shifted some papers on his desk, set the water he'd been drinking to the side, and leaned back in his chair.
"Since you froze me out and started handing off all your clients to other employees without telling me first," he replied in a calm, even tone. Something that Brooke knew was a bad, bad sign.
"Alcott, you're the one who shut me out. I've tried to see you for the past week!" Bad sign or no, Brooke wasn't about to let it intimidate her. She was tired of waiting.
"Well you're here now, care to fill me in?"
"Don't sound so condescending Alcott, it's really not you. I have a feeling you've already drawn your own conclusions, I'm not even sure I need to waste my breathe on explaining anything," she snapped back, teetering perilously close to the edge between frustration and pure pissed-offness.
"Be careful Davis, you're walking a fine line there," his calm demeanor dropped in the blink of an eye and Brooke was suddenly squaring off with a decidedly angry, and hurt, boss.
"Oh, so now you show emotion. What the hell are you playing at?!" she hissed, not willing to be the first to back down.
"Me? You're the one who's playing Spin the Cups with your clients and leaving the rest of us with a headache trying to keep up. Ever since you came back you've been different."
"If you'd taken the thirty minutes I'd asked for last week to fucking talk to me, you wouldn't be acting like such an asshole right now!" Yep, teetering done, she was now pissed.
"Watch your tone Davis," he warned, deathly quiet.
"You know what? No! You are not the end all and be all of fashion or the corporate world or even my career in New York! You know damn well you wouldn't have gotten anywhere NEAR where you are right now if it hadn't been for me. I've carried this company on my fucking shoulders for two years, and I can't even get thirty fucking minutes with you!" NOW she was shouting.
"Damnit Brooke! Stop!" Alcott deflated out of the blue and sunk back into his chair, all the fight leaving his frame. Brooke was put off by the shift, and was left scrambling for purchase with the abrupt change in conversation.
"Stop what Alcott? I'd gladly stop if you'd tell me what's going on!" Brooke backed down too, willing to calm down if her boss was. She really did have respect for him, even if she didn't always show it.
"Stop whatever it is you're playing at! Stop acting as if you're leaving!"
And there it was. Brooke sucked in a gasp of air, and sunk into the nearest chair herself. She'd wanted so badly to talk to Alcott before she'd done anything, but he kept avoiding her and she'd been running out of time and she didn't want to leave the people she'd come to know and hold dear over the two years out to dry. So Brooke had resigned herself to an eventual clean break, rallied the troops that she trusted, and began the dissemination of the client list she'd sweated blood to gather. It had broken her heart.
"Alcott, why didn't you just talk to me? Why wouldn't you see me?" Her voice was softer now, sounded almost broken. A petite hand rested over her eyes in an attempt to shield herself from the reality of the wounded man in front of her.
"Why'd you have to leave?" Me, was on the end of that question, but Alcott didn't say it, and Brooke didn't need to hear it to know it was there.
Brooke sat up a little bit and looked at her boss for the first time since she'd stormed into the office. He'd shifted from the cold heartless ass to the angry pissed off jerk to the broken hurt man in a matter of minutes, and it struck a chord in Brooke's heart that she knew he'd only allow himself that degree of vulnerability, that openness, in front of her.
"Alcott," she sighed, not knowing what to say.
Looking back on the two years she'd spent working with Mr. Alcott Roskins, Brooke heaved a huge suffering sigh for all the drama they'd gone through together, because of each other. The tall man currently with his head in his hands behind the big desk had become more than just her boss in the short amount of time they'd known each other. Alcott had seen Brooke through the trauma of moving to the big city and learning the ropes. Brooke had helped Alcott deal with the separation from his only daughter when she went off to college. Alcott had shown a previously unheard of amount of trust in Brooke when he handed her his biggest client, and she'd rewarded him with the largest deal ever closed and the highest amount of publicity his firm had garnered. At one point Brooke had lost all sense of reasoning and crossed the line between business and personal, and for that she'd always be sorry. When they'd found their way back to an easy going friendship after everything had gone haywire, both Brooke and Alcott had been immensely relieved.
Now, sitting in his office, Brooke paused as she felt a strong pang of regret for the loss of what had been a huge part of her life there. She knew, unerringly, that Alcott wasn't going to let her transfer. And with that same sense of certainty she knew that Alcott also understood he wasn't going to talk her out of leaving.
"Al, I wish you'd just talked to me about this whole mess," Brooke said quietly, waving her hand in the air. At her use of his nickname, Alcott's brunette head came up and he gave her the ghost of a grin. He inhaled deeply and sat back, running a hand through his slightly graying hair.
"I guess I figured if I didn't talk to you then you couldn't leave," he said rather openly, to which Brooke smirked sardonically.
"Ha, you know better than that. Avoiding me doesn't mean you get to avoid reality."
"If only. Brooke, why are you doing this? It can't be what you want, not truly."
Oh god, here we go again. I finally get through Lucas' thick head and now I'm back at square one with my boss. What IS it with the men in my life thinking they know better than me what I want?! Brooke ran a slender hand through her own hair, and marshaled her thoughts.
"How can you know what I truly want? You haven't given my friends even twenty minutes to get to know them, despite the fact both Lucas and Nathan have been to the office a dozen times and made repeated offers to come out for dinner. You know me as the person I am now, not as the person I was in Tree Hill. And the thing is, I wouldn't be who I am now if it weren't for the person I was back home. If it weren't for the people I have waiting for me there."
"Why would I want to spend time around people who are stealing you away from me?" That particular question was asked with such raw pain and anguish that for a moment Brooke thought she would cry. "I see who you are now, and I've been a major contributing factor to the growth you've undergone since you showed up in our office!"
"You have to let it go Al. We both knew I wasn't going to stay here forever. Not with all that's happened. In a way, I've been moving away, distancing myself from this company, from my friends, from you, for a long time now. Before I even thought about going home. I wont deny that I owe you a lot, that I owe a lot to the company. But I've paid back in spades what I've received, and I need this now. I need this change."
"But why? You could stay here, you've earned every scrap of respect and privilege you have here. Why do you want to walk away from it all?"
"Because it's not real. It's not me. I want my own line, Al, you know that. You've seen the drawings, you've seen the plans. Yet any time I ever brought it up, you squashed it so ruthlessly that I was left spinning. If you wont give me the chance to try, then I've got to do it on my own. It would have been so much easier with your help, but I don't need it." And it was the truth. She didn't need Alcott to make it big, and it killed him to admit that.
"Brooke, please. Don't do this. Don't pack up and move away and leave all this behind. You can't get it back if you decide to come home again," he struggled with his tears, trying hard to imbue the sense of seriousness he felt over the whole thing.
"Alcott, that's the problem. THIS isn't my home. This isn't even the place I can say will hold a piece of my heart, not like Tree Hill has over all these years. Yes, certain people," she nodded at Alcott, "will hold a piece of me in their hands for eternity, but that's as far as it goes. I'm sorry if you can't, or won't, see that."
"So that's it? You're just going to walk away from everything? From your friends, your career, from…me?"
"Don't be so cavalier about it bud. It's not a cake walk for me, I'll have you know. It would have been tremendously easier if you'd let me transfer and work from my home in Tree Hill, and commute to New York in emergencies. But I'm not blind. I know you wont consent to that." Brooke was beginning to sound bitter, a prelude to the anger she'd felt earlier. She didn't deserve this, it wasn't fair.
"I don't support this decision. I think it's stupid and rash and you'll regret ever having made the move. So tell me why I'd make this easier for you, when I clearly don't agree?"
"Because we're friends, because of everything we've shared, because you care about me, not the employee you've mentored for two years, but the woman who's become a good friend to you, and you want to see me succeed, at whatever I do."
"We are friends. That's why I'm not going to make this easy. Friends don't let other friends do stupid things. And I think this is stupid."
Brooke gaped at him. She hadn't honestly expected her boss to just let her transfer, but she'd never in her wildest fears expected him to be this dense about the whole thing. Gathering herself, Brooke stood up, reached for her bag, and pulled out a plain white envelope.
"I'm truly sorry you feel that way Mr. Roskins. In light of your decision, the only thing left to do is hand you this," she said, holding out the envelope. When Alcott made no move to accept it, Brooke sighed and dropped it on his desk. "It's been an amazing experience working here, and I thank you from the depths of my heart for all the wonderful opportunities you gave me. I'll finish up the transfers and train a replacement if you would like me to. My last day will be Friday," she said, fighting to keep the tears from creeping into her words.
When he just stared past her blankly, Brooke gulped hard on a sob, turned, and walked out the door, closing it on a chapter of her past she'd never thought to walk away from. Only this time she wasn't running from her problems. She was heading straight on toward the next hurtle. One less loose end to tie up, she thought to herself, a lone tear making it's way down her cheek.
-
"Brooke, this is too much, seriously. I can pay for myself you know," Nathan protested, smoothing his hands over the grey slacks and pressed shirt Brooke had tossed his way when she breezed through the front door that evening. Lucas had received a similar set of clothing, in a slightly darker shade of grey than Nathan's.
"Consider it a thank you for all the packing you've been doing, and for putting up with my nasty temper. We're going out tonight to relax and have some fun, and I wanted my two best guys to look killer. Besides, I needed the therapy. Work was shitty today." A look of pain and frustration flashed over Brooke's features for a split second, and Nathan was about to ask what had happened. But in true Brooke fashion she shook herself, flashed that killer smile, and moved on. "No worries Nathan, I wanted to. Besides, I saw that and knew it was you. Hales'll appreciate it, trust me," she purred. "Oooh, and don't you look delicious Broody," Brooke said in a husky voice, having turned at the sound of a bedroom door opening to reveal a drop dead gorgeous Lucas.
"So what's the plan tonight Pretty Girl?" Lucas walked forward and placed a light kiss on her cheek, not wanting to smudge any of her carefully applied makeup. It wasn't easy though; when Brooke used that voice Lucas turned to jelly. She did that to him, every time. "You look gorgeous, but I'm sure you already knew that," he said playfully.
"Of course I did, but doesn't mean I don't like to hear it every now and then," she joked. "Some of the girls from the office heard about my resignation – or rather, confirmation thereof – and decided a going away party was called for. We're supposed to meet my friends in a half hour, so if you two pretty boys are done preening yourselves, we should get going." Brooke smirked when they scoffed, and ducked when Nathan took a swipe at her.
"Lead the way princess," Nathan answered, sweeping his arm out in a gesture to proceed him out the door.
Waiting for them outside Brooke's door was a stretch Hummer limo. A weird mechanical sound preceded the sudden appearance of a woman dressed in a white button up shirt with a frilly collar and woman's suspenders. She was clearly two or three drinks into the night already.
"Juniper? What the hell? I thought we were supposed to meet you guys there?" Brooke was surprised, she certainly hadn't expected a waiting limo filled with what appeared to be drunk women.
"Brookie! Bout damn time girl! Oooh, trust Davis to bring the hotties! Come on girl, we've got a party with our names on it!!!" The woman who popped up through the moon roof started laughing, and squeals could be heard from the interior.
"Juniper, you're crazy! Get back in here, share the view!" Another feminine voice popped up from below and gave a yank to the woman's hemline, and Juniper tumbled from view. A blonde replaced her, this time with drink in hand.
"Hurry your ass up woman! Let's go! The alcohol is running low!" She then disappeared back inside to a peal of giggles louder than the last bout.
"Oh man, Brooke, what have you roped us into?" Nathan groaned, half tempted to turn back and disappear inside. The only thing that stopped him was the look on Lucas' face as he watched the antics of the women who'd shown themselves so far. He looked as panicked as Nathan felt.
"Oh no boys, sorry, there's no backing out now. Come on," Brooke insisted, looping her hands into the crooks of their elbows and dragging them along. The sight must have been rather comical, a petite slip of a woman dragging along two obviously toned athletic men, each over six foot. But, again, that was Brooke Davis. She never did anything half assed.
"Hey ladies!" Brooke greeted her friends, four in total, as they climbed into the back of the Hummer. The other two leapt forward and gave their friend a hug, while the first two eyed the slightly blushing men like they were steaks on the barbeque and they were starving.
"Ahem! Ladies, I'd like you to meet my boys, Lucas and Nathan Scott." The four women giggled and one of them murmured something to the effect of oooh brothers before Brooke pinned them all with a stare. "Listen up girls, they're off the market. Strictly hands off. Nathan's married to my best friend, so I'm here to defend her property, and Lucas, well, he's mine. I catch any wandering hands or sneaky advances, and I bust some ass, we clear?" Brooke cocked an eyebrow, Nathan and Lucas preened under the sentiment, and the other women groaned.
"Brooke, you're no fun. How come you get to have both pieces of eye candy??"
"Cause I'm just good like that. Now come on, let's go party. I'll pick my girls up some more eye candy at the club, no worries!" Brooke dove into the fun atmosphere of the limo and gladly accepted the drink one of the girls handed to her. Settling herself between Lucas and Nathan, Brooke kicked back, unwound, and thoroughly enjoyed the start to what she knew was going to be an amazing night. Hell, who wouldn't have fun sandwiched between the two hottest hunks in town?!
-
"So Brookie, we hear you're leaving us. Say it ain't so!" Marie, the lone red head of the group, sipped on her frilly drink while the other girls were out dancing. They'd finally cajoled Brooke into agreeing they could take the boys out for ONE dance, and she was going to sit on the sidelines and watch the whole thing. Call her controlling, but she didn't much care for paws on her men.
"I'm sorry babe, but it's true. I leave town in just shy of two weeks, and I've only got til the end of the week at work. Speaking of which, how in the world did you guys hear about it?" Brooke sipped on her own drink, satisfied her ladies were behaving themselves. She'd have to hop to on those eye candy prospects before the girls turned feral and started challenging her territory. It was her job to keep Nathan and Lucas in check, and part of that duty was hunting out other hunkies. God she loved her job.
"Jane overheard the conversation. She may look all mousy but that girl's a fountain of information for the rumor mill. She said you and Alcott were going at it pretty heavy though. He take it hard?" Marie turned her attention to her friend, sympathy writ on her face. She was one of the few who knew at least most of the details behind her's and Alcott's relationship.
"He wasn't pleased. But he left me no choice."
"I'm sorry he's being such an ass Brooke. He'll realize how badly he fucked up after you leave."
"Ha! Isn't that how it always works out? Never know what you've got til it's gone?" Brooke was feeling sad for herself. She loved her job, loved the people she worked with, and in little less than a week she'd have to walk away from it all.
"Alcott's scared, I bet ya. You'll be the first of us to leave the company from that high a position. We're all impressed that you had enough guts to stand up to him!" Marie truly was impressed. No one had ever withstood Alcott's anger until Brooke. She'd been an example for the rest of them.
"It's not like the asshole makes leaving easy! Alcott said some pretty nasty things. Even if he were to come crawling on hands and knees I don't think I'd come back. What's done is done, right?"
"Oh trust me, Brooke, he'll ask you to come back. He needs you." Laughter from the floor momentarily distracted them as one of the women stumbled and was caught by Lucas. Brooke started laughing when Lucas worked painstakingly to unwind the woman's fingers from his arms.
"Oh well. It's behind me, nothing I can, or want to, do about it. Let's drink to the night girlie, no seriousness! I need to track down some hotties for my girls!" Brooke and Marie clinked glasses, tacitly agreeing to keep the talk light and the mood chipper.
"So, Brookie dearest, tell me how you got so fucking lucky to have two gorgeous hotties attached to your arms! They're drool-worthy!" And thus the conversation turned to guys, drinking, and the finer parts of life.
Brooke laughed delightedly when both Lucas and Nathan came stumbling back to the table, clearly thrilled at being released from the writhing bodies on the dance floor. Lucas latched onto Brooke's waist and refused to budge, while Nathan stayed glued to her side, adamantly refusing any requests to dance or offers for free drinks. Every woman in that bar hated Brooke Davis that night, every guy wanted to be Lucas or Nathan, and Brooke was loving every minute of it.
-
A very drunk Brooke stumbled up the walk way with help from only a slightly tipsy Lucas and Nathan. Her friends had dropped them off and headed back out to the next hottest party; it was, after all New York, and there was always something going on. Brooke had however begged off, claiming exhaustion and an early start to the next work day.
"Bye Brookie! We'll miss you! We love you!" The girls shouted out the windows of the limo, waving as they drove off down the street. Brooke waved and mumbled something about having amazing friends and how she was going to miss those crazy hoes.
Nathan opened the front door and stepped through, flipping on the lights in the house as Lucas carried Brooke in. Nathan chuckled when Lucas caught the edge of his shoe on the rug and nearly tumbled to the floor.
"Hey bro, I'm going to go take Brooke to bed. I'll be out in a minute," Lucas said as he disappeared into the bedroom they shared. Nathan went and changed into sweats and fished out two beers from the fridge.
"Man, I forgot just how good at partying Brooke Davis can be!" Lucas gratefully accepted the beer and sank down onto the couch. He was exhausted!
"Nah, you're just getting old is all," Nathan joked.
"And you're whipped! You didn't so much as even look at another chick all night! Haley's got you wrapped dude!"
"Hey! It's my job to make sure she can trust me, and that means no lookie nookie! Besides, not a single woman in that bar could hold a candle to my girl!"
"I'll give ya that. I thought for sure we were going to have to beat some ass with all the dirty looks we kept getting," Lucas chuckled, and Nathan grinned.
"A fight might have been fun, come to think of it. Not our fault though that the hottest chicks in the bar were all at our table."
"Brooke's friends are insane, bro, seriously. At one point I had to peel one of those girls off a guy when Brooke swore he wasn't good for her. She's always looked out for her friends, hasn't she?"
"Oh yeah. Brook's got a huge heart. She's always there for her friends, no matter what. Sad thing is most people don't ever see that side of her." Nathan leaned his head back on the couch and thought momentarily about going to sleep.
"Do you think she's really okay with leaving all this behind? You and I both know Tree Hill could never compare to the lifestyle she's got here." Lucas' eyes squinted as he gave voice to his fears, again.
"Bro, you've got to let this go. Trust your girl to know what she wants, and just help her through the next step. She wants this move, we both can see that." So much for sleep.
"She may want it, but is it what's best for her? I've moved on from the whole idea of her moving for me…it's turned into concern that while she may want this, it may not be what's best for her." He was still squinting.
"Lucas! Stop brooding! Jesus, Brooke was right, you think too much." Nathan launched a nearby pillow at his brother, trying to get him to loosen up.
"Hey!"
"Bro, listen. We've got a unique situation here. I've known Brooke longer than anyone short of maybe Peyton. You know the intimacies of her heart. Between the two of us, we can keep her sane and happy. But you've got to trust her. You've got to love her enough to let her make decisions that may not pan out, or that may take her places she's never dreamed of before. She needs you to let her do that. If I'd held her back every time she made a decision I knew was going to pan out badly, she'd have kicked my ass to the moon and back. I'm not saying this is going to be one of those decisions. But you've got to be willing to work with her through it all, and be there for her no matter what."
Lucas stared at his brother. He hadn't been expecting such deep thoughts from him, but he had to admit, they made sense. Which sucked. He was supposed to be the thinker in the family.
"You know, I watch you and Hales together and I want that so bad. I want the family, the love that you guys have. It's there in everything you guys do. I love James, he's an amazing kid, but being around him makes me want one of my own even more. I'm just worried that Brooke's going to realize things aren't like how she hoped or thought or wanted, change her mind, and I'm going to lose her. Because, while I want all those things, the only woman I want them with is her." Lucas' gaze was unfocused, pensive and full of worry. He loved Brooke more than life itself, and he was terrified he wasn't good enough.
"Believe me when I say that you're the only guy for her. She crossed so many lines and gave up so much for you. It's not one of those things she'll just walk away from." Nathan tried hard not to feel silly, but he had never been one real good at the sappy talks. That was always Haley's department. Eventually the squirmy-ness of the whole thing got to him, and he started chuckling.
"What's so funny?"
"Two grown men sitting here having what amounts to a decidedly girlie conversation," he replied, laughing harder now. When Lucas chucked the pillow back at him, Nathan busted up laughing. Lucas shook his head, grabbed two new beers, and they settled to watching tv, a much more macho pastime.
-
The black of night hugged the high rise building down town. The offices surrounding his had long since gone dark, the other employees gone home to family and friends. He sat, alone, in his over-sized office, staring out the window at the stars visible in the sky.
He couldn't bring himself to leave his office, to walk out the doors that a certain brunette had exited through mere hours earlier. Brooke had walked away from him, his company, and her career, and Alcott was still reeling from it all. She'd taken a part of his heart with her when that door shut, and the poor man knew he'd never again be lucky enough to meet another woman like Brooke Davis.
He sighed, turned to his desk, and tapped a finger on the white envelope sitting on his desk, still unopened. For some reason, he was terrified to open that plain white package, because it meant a finality to something he'd come to cherish. Brooke Davis had grown from just being an employee to the reason he got up in the morning and came to work.
Alcott knew that opening that envelope would shatter whatever hope he had that she'd return to him. He took the envelope and slid it into a drawer, locking it. He just wasn't ready yet.
If only he'd checked the contents though, he'd have known why she needed to go back. He'd have understood, changed his mind, helped her. But he didn't, and the secrets of Brooke's past in New York remained hidden, captured in the picture of a baby inside an envelope locked away in a desk.