8– Stay Away From My Sister

“This has to be a joke of a lifetime. How is this even possible? Julian, did you know about this?” Rose whined. If it was possible for her, she would be screaming. But she needed to stay composed just to protect her image.

On the other hand, Julian was trembling where he stood. 

Devastated was a word that did not properly convey the emotion he felt when Lena was announced as the new head of King enterprises.

All those years, he had been living with the daughter of his greatest mentor and business partner. And he had fumbled it all. He threw it all away for a fairytale that he very quickly realized never existed.

From where he stood, he watched as Lena received congratulatory applause and hugs and handshakes. He could not move. He could not believe it.

And he certainly wanted to demand that Rose shut her mouth for the first time in her life.

“Julian, are you even listening to me?” Rose gritted through clenched teeth.

Julian said nothing. The man was so lost in his mind that everything around him became so minuscule, so unworthy of his attention. Everything except Lena.

He was angry that she had deceived him, lied to him, made a fool of him.

“Julian—”

“Can you stop whining for a moment and allow me think?” Julian finally snapped at Rose, though his voice was so low even a person who stood a pace away would not hear him.

“What exactly do you wish to think of?” Rose asked, incredulous.

“Everything. In case you haven’t realized, the woman I was married to is the daughter of my mentor and my greatest business partner. Of course my mind is a mess,” Julian answered, though his tone was not friendly.

“Or maybe you regret ever divorcing her. At least if she were still your wife, you would be a made man by now,” Rose said. Jealousy leaked out of her with such violence that it rattled Julian’s stance.

“I am a made man, Rose. I come from a wealthy family and beyond that, I carved my own path and built an empire. This is not about money, but about the fact that my integrity might be compromised,” said Julian. 

“I don’t care,” Rose shrugged.

“Of course you wouldn’t, you after all have no integrity to spare,” Julian jabbed at her.

The words crushed Rose’s pride so much that her mouth fell open but words did not make it out. By the time she was able to collect herself enough to speak, Julian had walked away. His legs carried him out of the party hall and then he found himself riding the elevator to the rooftop of the hotel where the party was held.

The cool air of the night hit him as he stepped onto the roof top. Julian exhale a long breath through his mouth as he shrugged off his suit jacket.

The city lights stretched endlessly. The rooftop was relatively quiet, save for the distant hum of traffic far below and the faint music bleeding through from the party several floors beneath his feet.

Julian dragged a hand through his hair, his chest rising and falling unevenly. No matter how many times he replayed the announcement in his head, it refused to sound real.

Incoming CEO of King Enterprises.

Lena.

The woman who used to fall asleep beside him with a book clutched loosely in her hands. The woman who never once spoke about her family, her background, or the weight of a name powerful enough to bend rooms to silence.

It couldn’t be.

A soft click sounded behind him.

Julian stiffened. He turned just in time to see a man leaning casually against the railing a few steps away, a cigarette between his fingers, the ember glowing faintly in the dark.

Leonardo King.

Lena’s older brother. Apparently.

Leo was the very opposite of Lena: less careful, a party animal, and a manwhore. 

In the past, Julian had taken Lena to have dinner with Leo, and the two had done a very good job at pretending not to know one another. They had fooled him perfectly.

“If it’s not Julian Black,” Leo said amusingly, tilting his head towards Julian.

Julian inhaled and exhaled a soft breath, but said nothing.

Chuckling, Leo said, “You look like you need this,” as he lifted the cigarette in his hand as an offering.

Julian’s gaze flicked to it before returning to Leo’s face. “I don’t smoke,” he said with indifference.

Leo hummed softly, unfazed. He took a slow drag, exhaled, and let the smoke drift upward into the night sky. “Neither do I. Not usually.”

“So why do you carry a pack of it?” Julian frowned.

“Because everyone smokes, depending on the situation. I like to be ready,” Leo added without a care in the world.

Julian said nothing. The air between the two men thickened, growing uncomfortable in a way that made Julian’s shoulders tense without him realizing it. He had faced hostile negotiations, ruthless competitors, and high-stakes deals that could collapse empires, but none of them made his throat feel this tight.

“You and Lena did a good job at fooling me,” Julian finally said.

Leo rested his elbows against the railing, eyes forward. “It was you who fooled yourself, Black.”

“What do you mean by that?” Julian ground out.

“Do I have to explain myself?” Leo asked.

Julian clenched his jaw. “Is it not the decent thing to do,” it was more a statement than a question.

Leo cast Julian a disdainful glance before looking away. “You’re the last person in the world that should be speaking of decency, seeing as you have none,” he muttered.

“I do not—”

“Just moments ago, you were looking down on my sister. I’m sure that when you saw us walk in together, you thought, ‘oh, now she has moved to another rich guy.’ And what you thought, that loud mouthed girlfriend of yours voiced. You stood there and said nothing to defend a woman you were married to for years. Suddenly, Lena is announced as the new CEO and you feel guilty. How pathetic,” Leo giggled underneath his breath, so casually as though he had not just read Julian to filth.

A beat passed.

“I do not feel guilty. I have nothing to be guilty about,” Julian immediately debunked.

“Then you’re an even bigger fool than I imagined,” Leo hummed as if he was deep in thought.

“Do not try to turn this around on me, King. You and your sister lied to me—”

“It is not my fault that you lived with a woman for years and never wondered why she was so careful, why she had no friend or family come around,” Leo cut in, his voice still touched by amusement. It seemed his goal was to pull on Julian’s strings.

Julian bristled. “Lena didn’t give me any reason to doubt or question her.”

Leo’s lips curved slightly. “She gave you every reason. You just were too focused on the girl that abandoned you to notice,” he said.

Silence stretched between them. In the end, Leo asked, “why did you do what you did to her?”

Julian swallowed. “I didn’t know she was your sister,” he answered. “It was your sister who lied to me, it was her who hid her identity from me.”

Leo finally turned to fully face Julian. His gaze was steady, assessing, stripped of any pretense. “Would it have changed anything?”

The question was delivered casually, almost lazily, but it struck Julian with the force that made his heart quiver.

Would it have?

If he had known Lena was the daughter of his mentor…

If he had known the weight behind her silence…

If he had known what he was walking away from…

Would he have done it differently?

Julian opened his mouth. No words came out. His silence stretched, damning in its own way.

“I thought so,” Leo gave a quiet, short and humorless sound that could pass for laughter, except that it was not. 

“I didn’t mistreat her,” Julian’s chest tightened as he murmured those words.

“You abandoned her,” Leo’s expression hardened instantly. 

“That’s not—”

“You left her for a woman who walked out of your life many times before. You left my sister and changed her life so abruptly,” Leo cut in sharply, his voice losing its calm edge. 

Julian’s pulse roared in his ears. “We had an agreement.”

“An agreement,” Leo repeated, his voice amused. He took another drag from his cigarette, then stubbed it out against the railing. Then he added, “you make it sound so clean. So reasonable. She gave you three years of her life, Julian. Three years of loyalty. Of patience. And you didn’t even hesitate to throw it all away.”

Julian’s fists clenched at his sides. “She hid who she was,” he argued.

“Again I ask, would it have changed how you treated her?” Leo probed. 

“I don’t—”

“You stand there and whine over the fact that Lena said nothing of her identity to you. But you forget how difficult it must’ve been for her to choose anonymity just so she could be your wife. I didn’t understand that choice before, but it makes perfect sense now,” Leo said.

The words landed one after another, each one stripping away the fragile defenses Julian had built in his mind.

“You didn’t deserve her, Julian,” Leo added, his voice low and dangerous now. 

“You don’t get to judge what you do not understand,” Julian said, taking a step forward.

The next thing Julian felt was a sharp, brutal impact that snapped his head to the side and sent him stumbling back a step. Pain exploded along his cheekbone. He tasted blood almost immediately.

Leo’s breathing was heavy, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “That is for the emotional stress you put my sister through,” he said hoarsely.

Julian straightened slowly, his vision swimming. He didn’t raise his hands to strike back. He simply stood there, absorbing the ache in his face and the deeper one settling in his chest.

Leo looked at him for a long moment, then turned away and started walking towards the exit of the rooftop. Before he stepped into the elevator, he said,

“I do not care that you’ll now do business directly with my sister, Julian, but stay the heck away from her. Do not look at her, do not think of her, do not imagine speaking with her outside of business, else, you’ll understand why I’m who they say I am.”