INICIAR SESIÓNJuliusHudson studied me for a long moment. Then he smiled, and it was the coldest thing I had ever seen. "You want to know what I have? Fine. I'll tell you."He pulled out his phone, swiped through it, then turned the screen toward me.The photo made my chest tighten. It was Jane in her wedding dress, pressed against my car in the parking garage. My hands were on her waist, her arms around my neck, kissing like the world was ending. The image was grainy but clear enough. Anyone who saw it would know exactly what was happening."Keep looking," Hudson said, his voice almost cheerful.He swiped through photo after photo."And this is my favorite," Hudson said, swiping to a video.It was security footage from the parking garage. The angle showed the interior of my car. Jane's wedding dress bunched around her waist, my dark suit jacket on the seat beside us. The windows were fogged, but you could see enough. "You sick bastard," I breathed."I have hours of footage, Dad. From the weddin
JuliusMy head of security arrived at the penthouse, bringing two of our best security analysts with him. I had cleaned up the blood on my hand and wrapped it in a towel, but I hadn't bothered with the destruction around me. "Sir, are you alright?" He took in the broken glass, the holes in the wall and the overturned furniture."No, but that doesn't matter right now. I need you to find out everything about Jane's movements yesterday. Everything. Where she went, who she talked to, every single detail," I stood by the window, my reflection ghostly in the glass. "Something happened. Someone got to her.""You think she was coerced?" He pulled out his tablet, already making notes."I know she was. The question is how and by whom." I already had my suspicions. There was only one person who had the motive and the lack of morality to do something like this. My son.The security analysts got to work immediately. They pulled footage from the building's cameras, nearby street cams and starte
JaneThe hotel room I lodged in was plain and soulless with beige walls, a beige carpet and abstract art that I couldn't understand hanging above a bed. I sat on the edge of the bed, my suitcase still packed by the door where I left it hours ago. I hadn't been able to bring myself to unpack. Unpacking meant accepting that I had actually done what I had done. That I had looked Julius in the eye and told him the most devastating lie I could think of.My phone buzzed again on the nightstand. I didn't have to look to know it was him. It had been buzzing constantly since I left the penthouse. I picked it up with shaking hands and saw his name on the screen. Twelve missed calls. Eight text messages. The most recent one just said, "Please, Jane. Just tell me you're safe."My thumb hovered over the screen. I wanted so badly to call him back and hear his voice. I wanted to tell him everything, but I couldn't. Hudson had made that very clear."If you tell him the truth, I'll destroy him. I'
JuliusThe penthouse was completely silent when I walked in. "Jane?" I called out, my voice rough from hours of not speaking.There was no answer. I walked through the foyer into the living room which was empty. The kitchen was empty too and my chest was getting tighter with every empty room."Jane?!" My voice was louder this time.There was still no answer.I went to the bedroom, pushing open the door, and stopped dead.The closet door was open and her side was completely empty. All her clothes, her shoes and her stuff were gone. The bathroom counter where she kept her makeup and perfume and all those mysterious products women used were cleared off like she had never been there at all.I walked back out into the living room in a daze. The books she had been reading were gone from the side table. The throw blanket she liked to wrap up in while watching TV was missing from the couch. Even the scented candle she bought that I pretended to hate but actually kind of liked was gone.Sh
JuliusI ordered the whiskey but I couldn't bring myself to drink it.It sat in front of me on the scarred wooden bar, the amber liquid catching the dim light from the neon signs on the wall. I stared at it like it might hold some answer or an explanation for what had just happened.Unfortunately, it was just whiskey. It couldn't tell me why the woman I loved had just ripped my heart out and handed it back to me in pieces.The bartender was an older guy with dark circles under his eyes who seemed to have seen enough drunk misery to know when to leave someone alone. He wiped down the other end of the bar and didn't bother me. The few other patrons were lost in their own worlds, nursing their own problems. Nobody cared about the man in the expensive suit sitting alone with an untouched drink.I thought I knew Jane. That was the thing that kept circling through my mind as I stared ahead aimlessly. I thought I knew her. I thought I understood who she was, what she wanted and what we w
JuliusI let go of Jane like I had been burned, stumbling back a step. The room was spinning. Nothing made sense. Everything I thought I knew, everything I had felt over the past few weeks was all crashing down around me."I don't believe you," My voice came out hoarse. "I don't believe any of this. There's something you're not telling me.""There's nothing else to tell," She was sobbing now, her whole body shaking. "I'm pregnant with Hudson's baby. I've been sleeping with him. That's the truth.""Stop saying that!" The words came out as a roar, all my control finally snapping. "Stop standing there and lying to my face! Whatever this is, whatever game you're playing, just stop it!""It's not a game!" She shouted back, her face crumpling. "Do you think this is a game to me? Do you think I wanted any of this?""Then why?" I demanded, my voice cracking. "If you've been sleeping with Hudson this whole time, why did you stay here? Why did you let me fall in love with you? Why did you let
JaneJulius froze. For one terrible, endless moment, his lips were still against mine and his body was rigid with shock. I had made a mistake. A horrible and irreversible mistake. I was kissing my fiancé's father. The man who was supposed to become my father-in-law in less than twenty minutes. Wh
JaneJulius Armstrong's piercing grey gaze locked with mine, and I didn’t think it was possible, but the humiliation grew even worse. It wasn't enough that I had caught my fiancé fucking my best friend minutes before our wedding. It wasn't enough that Hudson had kept going, had mocked me and had
JaneThe woman staring back at me in the mirror looked like a bride. White lace clung to curves I had learned to hide and to despise. My auburn hair was pinned into an elegant updo that had taken the stylist two hours. My makeup had been carefully applied to make my green eyes look less tired and
JaneMy eyes locked with Julius’s and in that moment, I saw my own desperation reflected back at me.“Please,” I whispered, my hands sliding up his chest to frame his face. “Please make me forget. Just for a few minutes. Make me forget Hudson. Make me forget—” My voice cracked. “Make me forget eve







