2026-08-10 23:10:22
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Chapter Fifty Five
The man crossed the distance between them before Colette had even finished smoothing her expression into something appropriately composed.“Colette.” He said her name like it belonged to him already, one hand settling at the small of her back the moment he reached her, his eyes flicking toward Julian with a kind of appraising curiosity rather than any real concern. “How did it go?”“Perfectly,” Colette said, leaning into the touch. “Exactly the way we planned it.”Julian took in the man properly now—early forties, expensive watch, the particular polish of someone who’d never once had to fight for anything he wanted. Marcus Delacroix. Julian recognized the name from industry circles, a venture capitalist who’d built half his portfolio acquiring companies from founders desperate enough to accept predatory terms.“You must be the ex-husband,” Marcus said, extending a hand Julian didn’t take. “Marcus Delacroix. I’ve heard quite a bit about you.”“I doubt that,” Julian said.Marcus’s smile
Chapter Fifty Four
Gianna sat on the edge of the bed for a long time after the sound of Julian’s car had faded completely from the driveway, letting the grief run its course before she made herself stand up.Crying wouldn’t fix anything. She’d learned that lesson early, watching her own mother collapse under things that couldn’t be undone by tears alone, and she refused to repeat that particular inheritance.She wiped her face, straightened her coat, and made herself think clearly instead.He hadn’t left because he didn’t care. She was certain of that now, certain in the way she trusted her own read of a room, her own instinct for the difference between a lie and a wound dressed up as one. Something had frightened him badly enough to send him running, and until she understood what that something was, pushing harder would only drive him further away.She would give him a few days. Let him settle, let the panic underneath his cruelty burn itself out on its own.And when the time was right, she would tell
Chapter Fifty Three
Julian sat in the VIP lounge for nearly twenty minutes before he finally pulled out his phone and typed the message.Something’s come up. I have to leave early. I’ll see you tomorrow.It wasn’t entirely a lie. Something had come up—just not the kind he could explain in a text message, not the kind that had anything to do with meetings or emergencies. What had come up was the sudden, suffocating clarity that Preston’s words had forced into the open, the realization that whatever he’d been carefully not naming between himself and Gianna had already grown into something too large to keep contained.He sent the message and left before she could respond.The drive back to the villa passed in a blur he barely registered. By the time he reached the front door, his decision had already hardened into something he refused to second-guess.He needed to leave.Not eventually. Not once things settled. Now, before this went any further, before his mother’s plans collided with whatever he was feelin
Chapter Fifty Two
Preston studied Julian for a long moment, something shifting behind his eyes when the earlier threat failed to land the way he’d expected. “Tenant and landlord,” he repeated slowly, like he was turning the words over to check them for weaknesses. “Interesting choice of phrase, considering the way she looked at you just now. I’ve spent my entire life around women who know how to perform interest for the sake of appearances. That wasn’t performance. That was a woman looking at a man like he already belongs to her.” Julian said nothing, but something in his chest went very still. “You don’t believe me,” Preston said, reading the silence correctly. “Fine. Let me tell you something about the Reyes family, then, since you clearly haven’t done your research. Gianna’s father was married once before, to a woman named Elaine. Devoted wife, by every account. Raised his household with total loyalty for nearly a decade before he traded her in for someone with better connections—a wealthy heiress
Chapter Fifty One
Gianna sat in her office with the security footage paused on her monitor, Julian’s hand still frozen mid-strike, Marcus’s head still tilted back from the impact. She’d watched it three times already. Not for the confrontation itself, though that had been satisfying enough in its own right—Marcus had needed humbling for longer than she cared to admit, and watching someone finally deliver it had been almost cathartic. What kept drawing her back was Julian himself. The way he’d stood perfectly still while an entire floor gathered to watch him, the way his voice had never once risen even as he dismantled two men’s careers in front of an audience, the absolute certainty in his posture when he’d said this company belongs to me like it was simply a fact of the world rather than a claim that needed defending. She replayed that moment a fourth time, studying the set of his shoulders, the stillness in his hands, the way authority seemed to settle on him naturally rather than something he had
Chapter 50
“Ms. Brennan,” Julian said, rising from his desk before she reached it. “I take it Marcus filled you in on his version of events.” “I heard you assaulted an employee and fired two veteran staff members without consulting me first.” Patricia’s voice was clipped, professional, but her eyes carried something harder underneath. “That’s a serious overstep, Julian, even for someone in your position.” “Then let’s not rely on anyone’s version,” Julian said. “Pull the security footage from the east wing camera. It’ll show exactly what happened. Tobias struck David first, in front of the entire floor, unprovoked.” “Unprovoked.” Marcus laughed, stepping forward with the easy confidence of a man who’d already decided how this would go. “The intern was insubordinate. He raised his voice, made accusations, refused to accept responsibility for his own failures. Tobias reacted the way any reasonable person might when disrespected in their own workplace. If anything, David provoked it.” “He said on
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