All Chapters of Under His Watchful Eyes : Chapter 61 - Chapter 70

*Julian's PoV*Elena's father has a bad day after three good days. He doesn't wake up when we come at nine. The doctor says his heart is tired. The private wing is quiet.Elena sits in the chair by his bed anyway, holding his hand, wearing the star necklace I fixed.I stand by the window because I learned a long time ago that when someone you love is sleeping in a hospital bed, you stand by the window so the person holding their hand doesn't feel crowded.Elena looks at me."Tell me about a year," she says. "Any year you visited him. A year I didn't know you were there."She wants stories now. Since her father told her I've been coming since she was fifteen, she wants the years filled in. The blank years where she was living her life and I was watching from a distance she didn't feel."Sixteen," I say. "You were sixteen.""Where was I?""Junior year. St. Jude's. You had a math test. You failed it. You cried in the library. Not loud. Just at the table in the back where the dictionaries

*Julian's PoV*I have proposed to Elena Vance three times in my head.First time when I was thirteen and she dropped the red ribbon in the library. I picked it up and thought, if I keep this, I can marry her someday. Obviously I didn't say it out loud. I was thirteen.Second time when I was eighteen and I bought the gold Vane Seal ring and the diamond ring. I gave her the gold one as a graduation gift through her aunt. I kept the diamond one in my desk for four years. I almost gave it to her when she came for her interview at Vane, desk outside my glass office. I didn't. She wasn't ready and I hadn't asked her father properly.Third time was last week with the fixed star necklace, new chain, old star. I said, "Be my wife, not my maid of honor." She said yes, crying, in the penthouse.So technically she already said yes.But Elena's father gave me permission yesterday out loud, after ten years of visiting him every birthday to ask about lemon drops and star necklaces and Mark Thorne. A

*Julian's PoV*I had the cameras removed.Not all cameras. Vane is a company. We need security. But the cameras pointed at the desk outside my glass office. Elena's old desk, those are gone. The feed that went to my private monitor that I watched while pretending to be on callgone.Now Elena's desk is inside my glass office. Real desk. Not a tiny freelance table. A real oak desk that matches mine, pushed next to mine so we can touch knees if we lean.She sits there now, first day as Marketing Head and Mrs.-to-be. She wears the star necklace, new chain, and the diamond ring, and the gold Vane Seal ring. She also wears the red ribbon from seventh grade, finally, as a bracelet, because she found it in my wall when I showed her.She catches me staring."What?" she says."I am watching you," I say."From same bed or same desk?""Same desk now. Same bed later."She smiles. She opens her laptop. She is actually working. Campaign for Vane private wing. The same wing her father is in, new char

*Elena's PoV*The first week of same room is chaos.Not romantic chaos. Real chaos. Like, Julian is on a call with Tokyo and I am on a call with Sarah about the charity campaign and we are both talking at the same time in the same glass office and Tokyo can hear Sarah say "no, not the lemon drop yellow, the star yellow."Julian mutes Tokyo."You want star yellow?" he asks me."I want star yellow for the private wing charity banner," I say, also muted. "Not lemon drop yellow.""Star yellow is what color?" he asks."The color of my star when the light hits it," I say.He stares at my neck. The star necklace, new chain."That yellow," he says."Yes."He unmutes Tokyo and says, "Sorry, my wife is deciding what yellow is star yellow. It's the color of a cheap drugstore star that her mom gave her before she died. We will need to come back to revenue projections."Tokyo is silent for a second, then says, "Congratulations on your marriage."We are not married yet. But everyone thinks we are b

Elena's PoV*Friday is a good day.Doctor calls at 7am. "He's awake. Clear. Angry about Jell-O. That's good sign."Julian is already in suit that fits. Not the fifteen-year-old big suit he wore to ask about candy. Real suit, black, tailored. He looks nervous, which is new. Julian Vane is never nervous in board meetings, but he is nervous about wedding in garden outside private wing window.I wear white dress Sarah found in one day because Sarah can find anything in one day. Simple. Not Vivienne's Birkin dress. White dress, star necklace new chain old star always touching skin, red ribbon bracelet from seventh grade he kept ten years, gold Vane Seal ring, diamond too big he bought at eighteen.No veil. I don't want veil. I want my dad to see my face from chair by window if he can't come down.We get to private wing garden at 9am. Garden is small. Ten chairs. Lemon drops in little paper bags on each chair, like my dad's old pharmacy bag from when he kept one for ten years. Sarah set the