Richard laughs, sharp and disbelieving. “She’ll leave you. They always do.”
Julian doesn’t take the bait.
“If she leaves,” he says evenly, “it will be because I failed her. Not because you manipulated circumstances.”
My breath catches.
Richard steps closer.
“You think this is finished?”
Julian moves too, one step forward. Measured and controlled.
“This is finished for me.”
The difference matters.
He isn’t trying to win.
He’s walking away.
Richard’s voice lowers. “You can’t cut out blood.”
Julian’s answer is ice. “Watch me.”
Security, I hadn't noticed before, shifts near the elevator, waiting for instructions.
Richard’s eyes flick to me again.
There’s no smugness now.
Just fury.
“You don’t understand what he is,” he says to me. “Men like us don’t change.”
For a heartbeat, something in me flickers.
Because that’s the fear I’ve been holding.
Men like him.
Men who freeze when you love them.
Men who pull away.
Men who choose work over family.
Julian hears it too, and this time, he doesn’t ignore it.
He looks at me directly.
“I’m not him,” he says.
And the look on his face is so pure, so open.
Richard scoffs. “You don’t have the stomach to finish this.”
Julian steps fully between us now.
