Todos los capítulos de You Chose Her, I Took Your Empire: Capítulo 21 - Capítulo 30

Julian's POVThe leather seat of the car was cold. I sat in the corner with my hands between my knees, trying to stop the shaking. My tie was pulled sideways, and the seam under my right armpit had split when the bouncers dragged me through the lobby.Marie sat on the far side of the backseat, pressed against the door. She held her black purse against her chest and looked out the side window. She didn't look at me once."Did you see them?" I asked. "Did you see the way he moved?"Marie didn't answer."He stepped out of the way on purpose," I said. "He didn't even try to hit me back. He just let me fall so I would look bad in front of everyone."I closed my eyes, but the picture was right there. I saw the floor of the bar. I felt my shoes sliding on the polish. I heard the loud thud my hip made when I hit the ground, and I heard Elena laughing."Say something, Marie," I said.She kept her eyes on the streetlights outside. "There is nothing to say, Julian.""He's just a laborer," I said

Elena's POVI stepped off the elevator at eight fifty-nine. I walked past the front glass doors and headed straight toward my desk.In the past, I came in at seven thirty. I used to buy his coffee on the corner and organize his schedule before anyone else arrived. I used to wipe down his desk surface, check his dry cleaning status, and flag his urgent messages so he had a smooth morning.Today, I carried only my purse and my personal binder.I set my bag down on my chair.Sarah looked up from her desk across the aisle. Her eyes widened when she saw me."Elena," Sarah whispered. "Are you okay? Everyone was talking about the St. Regis on Friday.""I am fine, Sarah," I said. "I am just here to work my shift.""He came in at eight," Sarah said. She leaned closer. "He slammed his door so hard the glass shook. He asked where you were three times already. He went to the breakroom twice just to look at the clock.""It is not nine o'clock yet," I said.Sarah glanced at the clock above the rece

Julian's POVI stood behind the head of the conference table, staring at the far end of the room.My mouth was still open. The silence in the private dining room was so heavy I could hear the hum of the air conditioning unit overhead.The executives from Apex Group had stopped writing. Mr. Lancer’s pen hung an inch above the paper. The six board members from Jenkins Holdings sat frozen in their leather chairs, their eyes darting back and forth between me and the quiet girl sitting at the end of the table.Elena sat with her back straight, her hands resting flat on the mahogany wood beside her open folder. Her face was completely smooth. There was no anger in her eyes. No fear. Just that flat, cold calm she had brought into my office yesterday morning."Actually, Julian, if you multiply the variable overhead by that ratio instead of the base margin, the system running at scale will lose the company four million dollars in the first quarter."Her voice was still ringing in my ears. She

Elena's POVI pulled the heavy glass door of Julian’s office shut behind me. My folder was pressed tight against my ribs. My knuckles were white where my fingers gripped the paper edge.I walked down the quiet carpeted corridor toward the elevator bay. The main floor was almost empty. A few desk lamps were still lit across the room, but most of the staff had already gone home for the day.I kept listening for the sound of Julian’s door slamming open behind me. I listened for his shoes hitting the carpet, for his voice yelling my name, for him demanding that I turn around and account for what I had done in front of Mr. Lancer. I had exposed his math. I had told the prospective client and the board that his altered variable ratio would lose four million dollars in ninety days. I had braced myself for an explosion.Instead, he had just stood at the head of the dining table. He had smiled, called me his detail assistant, laughed off the four-million-dollar error as a minor edge case, and

Julian's POVI sat alone on the leather couch in my penthouse, a half-empty glass of bourbon resting on the coffee table in front of me. The city lights outside the floor-to-ceiling windows were dark dots against the rain.My phone screen lit up with a buzzing sound against the glass top.I picked it up, expecting a message from the regional director about tomorrow’s schedule. Instead, it was a long text from Evelyn.I unlocked the screen and read the lines.I went to her place. She refused to listen to a word I said. She told me to tell you to stay out of her life for good. She is lost to us, Julian. Do something.I stared at the glowing letters for a long time.My jaw tightened. For four years, Evelyn had been my safety net. Whenever Elena got distant, whenever she complained about late nights at the office or pushed back on my schedules, one phone call to her mother was all it took. Evelyn would talk to her, remind her of her duties, and drag her right back into line.And now Evel