Everyone Expected Revenge, I Gave Them My Blessing

Emily said I always held back—that I was too boring for Julian and he needed more excitement in his life. So she invited me to Hudson Pier.

The place where my family had been slaughtered. The place where Julian had risked his life to save mine.

10 years ago, I was the spoiled heiress of the mob. Then Rafael, the Don of a rival family, decided he wanted to marry me—and he wouldn't take no for an answer.

My three brothers were furious. They wanted him dead.

None of us knew that Rafael was the illegitimate son of the Sorels, the most powerful drug family in the world. His father wasn't about to let anyone threaten his son. He lured my family to Hudson Pier with a billion-dollar deal, then had them all killed.

A bullet grazed my hair on its way toward my forehead. At the last second, someone shoved me off the dock.

When I woke up, my father, my mother, and my three brothers were dead. The family members who had once followed me everywhere had vanished without a trace by morning.

I couldn't even blame them. Everyone was terrified of the Sorels.

I'd already decided to join my family in death. But despite his family's objections, Julian came to me and promised to protect me forever and stay by my side as I grew stronger.

Now I was strong, and he was the one who was sick. I owed it to him to do what he'd once done for me.

So I accepted Emily's invitation and returned to the place where my nightmare began.

Hudson Pier was once beautiful. Now it was nothing but a filthy, crumbling ruin.

The pier had once belonged to my family. After the massacre, everyone treated it like cursed ground. For years, even I couldn't bring myself to return.

But if returning could help Julian find his way back to himself, I could face it.

I pushed through the cobwebs with my bare hands and followed the dusty, gold-trimmed walkway toward the main hall. As I crossed the threshold, my foot caught on something, and I fell onto a deck smeared with excrement.

I'd thought about this place every day for 10 years. I knew every crack in every tile by heart. There was no way I'd simply tripped.

I got to my feet and examined the entrance. Sure enough, someone had raised the stone threshold on purpose.

"Who's there? Come out!" I drew my gun and swept it across the room.

"Jumpy, aren't you? Guess that's what happens when a woman gets old!"

Emily descended the stairs in black stockings and heels, a smug look on her face. The sweet young doctor from the hospital was gone. Now she looked like the kind of high-end escort you would see at an exclusive nightclub.

I scoffed. Julian's alternate personality had to be incredibly naive to fall for such a cheap act.

Fine. I'd clean up his mess for him. I slapped Emily hard enough to knock her down. But before I could do anything else, the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against the back of my neck.

"On your knees! Apologize to Emily!"

I knew that voice. I turned in disbelief and saw Julian glaring at me with pure hatred.

This was a man who had once valued my life above his own. How could his alternate personality hate me this much?

I fought back my tears and kept my voice gentle. "Julian, don't let her fool you."

I never got to finish. A slap sent me crashing back into the reeking filth.

"Apologize to Emily right now, or forget about ever seeing your precious real Julian again!" he screamed like a madman. The despair I'd felt 10 years ago, when the whole world abandoned me, came rushing back.

Then I remembered something. I wasn't that helpless little girl anymore.

"Then I won't see him. Thank you for saving me back then. You helped me survive, and I've repaid that debt many times over with everything I've built since."

Ignoring the pain, I pushed myself up, stripped off my filthy cashmere coat, and dropped it on the floor. Then I straightened my back.

"We're even now. Julian, you're on your own."

Julian's eyes widened, then slowly reddened.

I ignored him and walked away. A soft, broken whimper came from behind me.

"Caroline, you can't mean that. How could you throw me away?!"

His whole body shook, his face slick with tears and cold sweat. He looked exactly as he had 10 years ago, when I'd tried to kill myself.

Had I somehow shocked the real Julian back to the surface?