All Chapters of From My Ex's Betrayal To His Father's Bed: Chapter 51 - Chapter 56

JULIA The moment I stepped through the front door of the mansion, I barely had time to set my bag down before something collided with me so hard I almost dropped to my knees.“JULIA!”“Phoebe—!”Her arms wrapped around me like she was trying to squeeze the life out of me. Honestly, for a second I thought she might. I stumbled backward, and she clung tighter, burying her face against my shoulder like I’d been gone for ten years instead of ten days.I laughed breathlessly. “Phoebe, I can’t breathe.”“You left me!” she wailed dramatically, even though I could feel her smiling. “Left me to DIE, ma’am! They threw all the chores at me! Do you know how many floors this house has? TOO MANY!”Her voice cracked halfway through, but it wasn’t sadness—it was pure, theatrical suffering.I wrapped my arms around her and squeezed back. “I missed you too.”She pulled away just enough to look up at me. Her eyes were watery, but it was the fake kind, the kind she used when she wanted sympathy points.

MARCUSThe door slammed hard enough to rattle the frame.The boy always did have a dramatic exit.I didn’t look up immediately. I let the silence stretch across the room while I tapped the cigarette once, twice, letting the ember fall neatly into the tray. The air still vibrated faintly with Nero’s anger which was raw, confused, unrefined. He hadn’t learned to mask it yet. Terra’s influence, perhaps. Or Julia’s.Especially Julia’s.I leaned back in my chair again, rolling my shoulders as the tension slowly melted off. Nero barging into my office was nothing new. But the look in his eyes today… that was new.Fear.Jealousy.Possession.All emotions he had no right to feel anymore.And yet he felt them anyway.“Pathetic,” I muttered under my breath.Not because he was weak, well he wasn’t. Nero had the potential to crush men twice his age. But his emotions… that was the leash he still hadn’t cut off. And Julia was the chain.I pressed a hand to my forehead, rubbing the bridge of my nose

JULIAThe Luchessi estate never looked smaller than when I walked through its front doors this afternoon. Everything was the same, the polished floors, the high ceilings, the quiet hum of servants moving just out of sight, but it all felt heavier somehow, weighed down with unspoken eyes and whispered words.I thought I’d be coming back alone, just Phoebe and me. My visit to Mother had been a short reprieve, a chance to breathe away from the constant scrutiny of this mansion. I hadn’t expected anyone else to accompany me, yet the sound of a car door closing nearby had me glancing over my shoulder.Marcus.I froze before even realizing it. The man’s presence was impossible to ignore. The same sharp jaw, the gelled black hair, the long sleeves folded up to reveal forearms that could crush a man if he wanted. And now, somehow, he was walking beside me, guiding me toward the front entrance with a careful hand at my elbow as though he were protecting me from the world.I didn’t ask. I could