𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐒𝐄. - 𝐫𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐧

006. he calls this research

RAFE GETS INTO HIS thoughts, stumbling upon Instagram—which he rarely uses often, barely posting anything on there—he's now found Tatum's account. This is the first time he's ever tried to put an effort to look her up after all these years. She's definitely made a name for herself in the world of fashion.

He presses onto her most recent post. It's a picture of her in the outfit he'd seen her in the other day with the caption that read finally back home. It's odd that in these recent posts of hers, his sister has been liking and commenting in them.

The Cameron boy didn't know Sarah kept up with her, let alone stayed in contact with the one person he wished to never see in his life ever again.

Tatum looks like a whole new person on her account. Not the same Tate he knows... or knew. Four years ago he didn't think her life would turn out to look like this at all. He had his life planned out with her and now it's completely something he'd never imagine it be.

His thumb scrolls down to find a picture of a guy. Rafe clicks on the post to find Owen, her new fiancé. The post eventually leads him to Owen's personal account. This isn't stalking at all. Rafe isn't the type to do that.

This is just research.

Just to catch up and see what's going on with the situation he's being forced into all because of Tatum and these divorce papers. If he's being pushed to sign them, he has every right to know who this new man is. Fair play.

This Owen guy seems like a nice dude. Nothing about his profile looked suspicious to Rafe. Half of his posts are either about Tatum or has Tatum in it. Owen Wilde, son of one of Hollywood's favorite movie producers, Stephen Wilde.

Rafe thought his last name had a ring to it. His father, Ward, had met with Stephen years ago a couple of times, asking about the Tannyhill Plantation Estate and whether to use it for one of his productions. However, Ward wasn't about to have his property used here and there for more possible productions in the future. So the offer was declined.

In every picture that Tatum's in with Owen, she genuinely looks happy. This causes Rafe with secondhand thoughts which start to circulate around his mind. The harsh reality is starting to hit him.

If not—happier with Owen than she was with him. His lips purse together, looking through some more pictures. Everything is catching up to him. All these years while he tried his best to recover and heal from Tatum's absence, she was thriving out in New York, living out her dream.

And he'd ruined it for her back here in Outer Banks. Rafe had pulled her back from what she truly wanted, blind sighting her with the future he thought she wanted.

His eyes shut closed, dropping his phone on his desk. Rafe hides his face in his hands, exhaling out a deep sigh. "Fuck me." His voice whispers to himself.

Sarah walks into the office room where Rafe is sat. She finds him alone, his finger scratching against his bottom lip. Something's definitely bothering him. And she can tell it has to do with Tatum.

"You good, Rafe?" Sarah arches an eyebrow. She just wanted to check up on him after witnessing what seemed to be him getting served divorce papers in public.

"Yeah—uh, just some business I've been helping Dad with. These buyers are more stubborn to convince than others." He sighs, giving her some lame excuse from the real truth.

"Hm," she nods, looking around the room. "If you say so. But, uh, can you let Dad know I'm going out tonight with JB and them? I can't reach him anywhere and the party's in two hours." The blonde girl sighs.

"Whose party is it?" Rafe asks, playing with his fingers.

Sarah answers, "Topper's, why?"

"Again? Didn't he have one yesterday?" His eyes narrow in curiosity. Topper isn't the type to throw this many party's in a row. He's usually still hangover by this time from the previous party the night before.

"It's summer, what's so wrong about hosting two parties in a row? Just because it's not your thing anymore doesn't mean everybody else feels the same way, Rafe." Sarah goes ahead and roles her eyes.

Rafe's phone rings and a notification pops up at the top of his screen. Sarah's eyes happen to look down at his phone as well, catching a small glimpse of what he was looking at earlier. Looks like a picture of Tatum. Rafe looks back up at Sarah, forgetting his phone was even open to Owen's post of Tatum. He acts as if he wasn't just stalking and answers the phone call.

"Uh, hello? Yes, this is him speaking." Rafe's professional voice comes into scene as he does a business call. "I'll find Dad later, just don't do anything stupid." He whispers to Sarah, signaling for her to leave quickly.

She puts on a big smile, throwing two thumbs ups at her brother before jogging away. As the sound of her happy footsteps disappear upstairs, Rafe is practically done with the call.

He excuses himself politely before hanging up. "I'll make sure to let the shareholders know. Thank you and update me if anything happens." He clicks off the phone call, viewing back the same picture of Tatum from earlier.

Rafe quickly clears his throat, clicking off of instagram, going back to his homepage. A close call caught by Sarah. But there's no way he'll ever have a conversation about the small awkward moment shared between him and his sister. Or practically anyone who might've caught him looking her up.

"Nice one, Rafe." He grinds his teeth together. "Caught by your own little sister." Rafe grimaces at himself, placing his phone down.