2026-05-09 10:29:14Colette stood at the window of her office, staring down at the empty spot where Julian had been standing just moments ago.
Her hands were still shaking. She pressed her palms flat against the glass, trying to steady herself, but it didn't help. Her whole body felt like it was vibrating with shock or maybe disbelief or something worse. "I shouldn't have signed," she whispered. Sebastian appeared beside her, close enough that she could smell his cologne. "Don't say that," he said gently. "You did the right thing." Colette shook her head, her throat tight. "Julian's always been so calm. So compliant. He never pushes back, never argues. For him to act like this, to ask for a divorce..." She turned to look at Sebastian, her eyes wide and uncertain. "Did I go too far?" she asked. "Maybe I did. Maybe I should have –" "Stop," Sebastian cut her off firmly. "You didn't do anything wrong, Colette. Julian is the one at fault here. Not you." "But –" "Listen to me," Sebastian said, his voice dropping lower, more serious. "The way he's been acting lately? The sudden defiance? The coldness? That's not normal. People don't just change like that overnight." Colette stared at him. "What are you saying?" Sebastian hesitated, like he didn't want to say it. Then he sighed. "I think Julian's been cheating on you," he said quietly. Colette's breath caught. "What?" "Think about it," Sebastian continued. "It's the only thing that makes sense. A man doesn't suddenly ask for a divorce unless he's already got someone else lined up. The real reason for all of this – it's because he doesn't love you anymore. He's fallen for someone else." The words hit Colette like a physical blow. She thought back over the past few weeks. Julian's distance. The way he'd stopped trying to please her. The way he'd looked at her tonight, cold and detached, like she was a stranger. It made sense now. "I knew it," she breathed. Sebastian pulled out his phone. "After he left your house last night, I had someone follow him for a while. Just to see where he went." He swiped through his phone, then held it out to her. Colette took it with trembling hands. On the screen were photographs – clear, high-quality images of Julian sitting at a café with a woman. They were leaning close, talking. In one photo, the woman was smiling at him. In another, Julian was looking at her with an expression that looked dangerously close to affection. Colette's hands clenched around the phone. "He was cheating," she said, her voice shaking with fury. "All this time, he was sneaking around behind my back with some – some blonde homewrecker –" She rushed to the window and looked down at the street below. She could see Julian entering into a sleek black car. And in the driver's seat was a woman – the same one in the photographs. Rage boiled over within her. "I'm going down there," Colette said, already moving toward the door. "I'm going to expose him. Right now." Sebastian grabbed his jacket. "I'm coming with you." *** Gianna had just pulled out of the parking spot when another car swerved in front of them, cutting them off so abruptly that she had to slam on the brakes. Julian braced himself against the dashboard. "What the –" The other car's door flew open and Colette stepped out, her face twisted with fury. Sebastian followed right behind her. "Stay here," Julian said to Gianna, "Are you sure?" Gianna asked as her eyes narrowed at the scene unfolding in front of them. "I'm sure. I'll handle this," Julian opened his door and got out. Colette was already storming toward him, her heels clicking sharply against the pavement. "What do you want now, Colette? If you're here to ask for the divorce papers back," Julian said evenly, "you're wasting your time." Colette let out a harsh, bitter laugh. "Take them back?" she spat. "Are you insane? I'm not here for that. I'm here to expose your affair." Julian blinked. "My what?" Colette thrust her phone at him, the photographs filling the screen. "Don't play dumb with me," she snarled. "I know everything. You've been sneaking around behind my back with some blonde woman, and now you have the audacity to ask me f for a divorce? You're disgusting, Julian. Absolutely disgusting." Julian stared at the photographs, recognizing when and where it had been taken, "You think I'm having an affair?" he said slowly. "I don't think," Colette snapped. "I know. And I'm going to deal with her right now." She started toward the car, her eyes locked on the driver's seat where Gianna sat watching the scene unfold. Sebastian stepped up beside Colette, his expression smug. "Caught red-handed," he said, his voice dripping with mockery. "What's the matter, Julian? Couldn't handle a real woman like Colette, so you went running to some –" "Move," Colette said, cutting him off. She reached for the car door handle. Julian didn't stop her. Colette wrenched the door open, her mouth already forming the first cutting insult. Then she froze and her face went completely blank. The woman sitting in the driver's seat wasn't just some random blonde. She was someone Colette recognized immediately – someone everyone in the city would recognize. Gianna Brennan – CEO of Apex Innovations. The Ice Queen herself. Colette's mouth opened, then closed, no sound came out.
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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
Chapter Forty Nine
“On what grounds,” Julian said again, quieter this time, which was somehow worse than if he’d shouted. David flinched anyway. “It doesn’t matter. I already signed the termination paperwork. I should go.” “You’re not going anywhere.” Julian took the box out of David’s hands before he could protest and set it down on the nearest bench. “Tell me what happened. All of it.” So David told him. The overtime he’d logged trying to fix the mess Marcus had buried him under. The falsified attendance complaint that appeared on Patricia’s desk the same morning David had finally finished the impossible project ahead of schedule. The meeting where he wasn’t even allowed to explain himself before HR handed him the box. Julian listened without interrupting, his jaw tightening with every sentence. When David finished, Julian picked the box back up himself. “Mr. Thorne, you don’t have to—” “Walk with me,” Julian said, already moving toward the elevators. They crossed the open floor of the marketin
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