جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 34

The house was no longer the peaceful, structured quiet of a well-ordered life; it was the suffocating, heavy silence of a tomb. Julian Vane stood in the center of the kitchen, a room that had once smelled of Lily’s favorite Earl Grey tea and the faint, citrusy scent of her perfume. Now, it smelled of nothing but cold marble and regret. For two weeks, he had moved through this house like a ghost haunting his own life.He was a wreck. The sharp, tailored lines of his suits seemed to hang loosely on a frame that had forgotten to eat, and the shadow of a beard he hadn't bothered to trim gave him the look of a man who had lost his way in the dark. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the moment the color had drained from Lily’s face. He saw the way she had looked at him—not with anger, which he could have fought, but with a crushing, soul-deep disappointment. She had treated him like the enemy, and the realization that she likely hadn't heard his final, thunderous defense of her—his decla

The doors hadn't even finished latching before Lily was halfway across the foyer, her heels echoing like gunfire against the marble. She didn't look back at Julian. She didn't wait for another arrogant explanation. She fueled herself with the pure, unadulterated rage that had been simmering for a month, a heat so intense it threatened to scorch her throat.She took the stairs two at a time, heading straight for the sanctuary of her bedroom. She needed to lock a door. She needed to breathe. But as she threw the double doors open, the air left her lungs for an entirely different reason. The room was no longer the empty, pristine shell she had left behind. Her suitcases from the "Elena Miller" apartment were sitting at the foot of the bed, already partially unpacked. Her favorite books were back on the nightstand. Her perfume was lined up on the vanity as if it had never moved.But that wasn't the violation that made her blood boil. In the walk-in closet, the heavy, masculine scent of ce