His Open Marriage, My Forbidden Secret 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 91 - 챕터 100

The prison cell was twelve feet by eight feet. Julian had measured it a thousand times by pacing.Three steps one way. Three steps to the other. A bed bolted to the wall. A toilet. A sink. A small window with bars that looked out onto a concrete courtyard where men who'd given up hope sat in the sun.He wasn't like them. Not yet.But he was starting to understand how people ended up that way.His cellmate was an older guy named Marcus. Thirty years for armed robbery. Marcus kept to himself mostly, which was fine because Julian didn't want to talk to anyone. Didn't want to explain how he got here. Didn't want to hear that he deserved it.Everyone said that. The guards. The social worker assigned to him. Even his own family."You deserve it, Julian," his mother's voice in his head. Except Margaret wasn't alive anymore to actually say it. Heart attack two months ago. The irony wasn't lost on him. She'd spent his whole life controlling him, protecting him, making excuses for him. And then

Lia was in the car. Back seat. Dorian driving. Marcus in the passenger seat.It was supposed to be a simple trip. One week after the last appointment. Dr. Ross had wanted to see her again. Check blood pressure. Make sure everything was still on track.She'd been nervous about leaving the penthouse but Caspian had convinced her it was necessary. The baby needed monitoring. Life couldn't just stop because Julian was making threats.So here she was. Out in the world. Vulnerable.The car turned onto Fifth Street. Dr. Ross's office was on this street. Two more blocks.Lia looked out the window. Watched people walking. Couples holding hands. Kids with their mothers. Normal life happening all around her while she sat in the back of a car with armed bodyguards."How are you feeling?" Marcus asked. He was younger. Maybe thirty. Dark tattoos on his neck. But he had kind eyes."Nervous," Lia admitted. "The baby's been active. Like she knows something's wrong.""You're just stressed," Dorian said

The hospital smell was making her sick. Antiseptic and something else. Something like death and cleaning supplies mixed together.Lia was in a private room. Not the regular ward. Caspian had paid for privacy. Privacy and security. A guard outside the door. Another one by the window even though they were on the fourth floor.She couldn't stop shaking.The doctor had come in three times already. Checking her vitals. Checking the baby. Running tests. Everything came back normal. The baby's heartbeat was strong. No trauma. No physical damage from the procedure that Dr. Chen had started.But Lia could still feel it. I still feel the violation of it. Still feel the cold metal table and the restraints and the way her body had been invaded."You're safe now," the nurse said when she came in with more painkillers. "Your baby is safe. You're both going to be fine."Lia wanted to believe that. Wanted to feel the relief that everyone kept telling her she should feel.But she couldn't feel anythin

He was always awake before the sun.Old habit. Fifteen years of running an operation that never slept had wired him that way. His eyes would open at four thirty, sometimes four, and that was it. No going back. His brain was already moving even when the rest of the world wasn't.On the island there was nothing to do with that. No meetings. No calls until a decent hour. No Dorian showing up at the door with problems that needed solving before breakfast.So he walked to the beach.The sand was cold this early. The kind of cold that came up through the soles of your feet and reminded you that the world was real and solid and still here. The sky was that dark blue that happened right before sunrise. Not black anymore but not morning yet. Something in between.He stood at the water's edge and let the waves come up over his feet.He thought about his mother.He did this sometimes. Came to the water and thought about her. She had taken him to the lake outside the city every summer when he was

He had never told anyone the whole thing.Pieces of it, yes. Dorian knew most of it because Dorian had been there for parts. Vincent had known it because Vincent had lived through some of it with him. But the whole unedited version, start to finish, every ugly detail in the right order, he had never said it out loud to another person.Lia was lying against his side. Her head on his chest. Her hand over Elena. The room was dark and quiet and there was something about the darkness that made it easier.He stared at the ceiling and started talking."My mother's name was Rosa," he said. "She was twenty-six when she had me. Young. Too young probably. She'd grown up in Silvercrest same as me, same neighborhood, same kind of nothing. She was beautiful and she was smart and she made the wrong kind of friends when she was nineteen."Lia was still. Just listening."The man she got mixed up with was named Caretti. He wasn't the boss. He was a mid-level guy who ran collections for the Manzetti fam