Page 139 of Two Sides of Sin

The heavy oak door had been pushed open by a group of restaurant workers and the maître d’. They stood frozen in the doorway, staring in utter horror at the apocalyptic bloodbath we had made of the upscale bathroom.

“Hey! Get the hell off him!” a waiter yelled, his voice cracking with panic. “I’m calling the police right now! Get out!”

The sudden, piercing reality of the mortal world crashing down around us acted like a bucket of freezing water over Julian’s rage.

He froze. His torn hand released the bloody porcelain shard still buried in my shoulder.

Slowly, heavily, Julian pushed himself off my battered body. He stood up, his towering frame swaying slightly with the adrenaline. His expensive suit jacket was torn, his crisp white dress shirt ruined and soaked through with my blood.

He looked down at me. The black void in his eyes slowly receded, leaving behind his striking amber irises. But there was no victory in his face. His eyes were bright, brimming with hot, desperate tears of profound frustration.

He knew exactly what I knew. No matter how brutally he beat me, no matter how much of my blood he spilled onto this floor… he couldn’t end it. We were a curse bound by blood, doomed to this cycle for eternity.

“God,” Julian whispered, his voice cracking with a raw, devastating sorrow that almost made me pity him. “I wish I could just fucking kill you.”

He didn’t wait for a response. He turned his back on me, ignoring the terrified restaurant staff cowering in the doorway, and shoved past them into the crowded dining room.

“Sage!” his panicked, desperate roar echoed through the restaurant. “Sage!”

I lay there in the wreckage of the flooded room, staring up at the flickering overhead lights as my shattered ribs slowly began to knit themselves back together. I let out a long, wet sigh, pulling the bloody porcelain shard from my shoulder with a sickening squelch.

The night was now ruined for them. And for me? It was an absolute triumph.

Chapter 71

Sage

Who the fuck was that? What the hell is going on!?

I stumbled out through the heavy glass doors of the restaurant and onto the wet pavement, my chest heaving as I fought the overwhelming urge to throw up. Dizzying confusion wracked my body. My mind was spinning out of control, desperately trying to process the nightmare that had just unfolded.

My perfect birthday dinner was a complete disaster. I had just been assaulted in a restaurant bathroom by a terrifying stranger with a sickly similar face to my boyfriend, who sat oblivious just down the hall.

A stranger who was apparently his twin brother.

Was that my stalker? The thought hit me like a physical punch to the stomach. Was it his twin brother this whole time, leaving those taunting gifts, watching me in the dark corners of my room? Was that why Julian had been so eager to follow me around and protect me? Was that why he moved me into a multi-million dollar fortress in the sky without batting an eye?

But why? my mind screamed. What would Julian get out of that? No. I shook my head, squeezing my eyes shut. I refused to let myself think that way. Julian loved me. I felt it in my bones. He would never, ever let anybody hurt me like that.

Maybe he didn’t know his twin brother was a fucking psychopath and a pervert who was terrorising me. But even if he was innocent in the stalking… it still meant he had been lying to my face this entire time.

It didn’t make any sense. If he had been keeping a secret this massive from me, what else had he lied about? Was this the real reason he never, ever mentioned his family or his past?

A heavy, sickening dread dropped straight to the bottom of my stomach. The beautiful, perfect little fantasy I had built for myself was crashing down around me. Hot, humiliated tears spilled over my eyelashes, tracking through my makeup and down my cheeks.

I grabbed my bare arms, shivering uncontrollably. It was late, the street was mostly empty, and a freezing, misty rain had just started to fall, instantly biting into the exposed skin of my backless dress.

I pulled my phone out of my clutch, my trembling thumb mashing the power button. The screen flashed a dead battery icon before going black.

Fuck. I couldn’t even order an Uber.

I knew I should wait for Julian. I knew he was probably tearing the restaurant apart looking for me right now. But I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t look him in the eye, not when he wore the exact same face as the man who had just shoved his hands between my thighs. I was too upset, too terrified, and my flight instinct had now taken over. He had some serious explaining to do, and I needed to be behind a locked door to hear it.

I started walking quickly down the wet pavement, my heels clicking frantically.

A sudden crack of thunder rolled over the city, the sound vibrating right through the soles of my shoes. I flinched, a gasp catching in my throat as a massive strike of lightning illuminated the dark clouds.

I hated storms. I had been terrified of lightning and thunder for as long as I could remember. It was a deep, irrational, clawing panic that I could never fully explain, but it always made me feel like the sky was caving in on me. The rolling boom echoed again, and the misty rain instantly escalated into heavy, freezing sheets.