Chapter 5 - The Wedding Nobody WantedThe wedding took place three days later.
Not because she wanted to.
Because Julian refused to leave her in an apartment that had just been attacked.
“You don’t get to order me around,” Lena said as she stood beside the broken window.
“No.”
“Then stop acting like you do.”
“I’m not ordering.”
“What do you call two armored SUVs downstairs?”
“Strong encouragement.”
She glared at him.
Julian looked at the brick.
“I can sleep on your couch if you prefer.”
“That couch is four feet long.”
“I’ll survive.”
She stared at him.
He meant it.
That irritated her even more.
By midnight, Lena was riding through Manhattan in the back of a black SUV with two suitcases containing almost everything she owned.
Julian sat across from her.
Neither spoke.
His townhouse occupied nearly half a block on the Upper East Side.
Lena had expected glamorous.
Instead, it felt quiet.
Almost lonely.
A housekeeper named Rosa welcomed her without judgment.
A security director named Marcus Hale introduced himself with military precision and showed Lena every exit, alarm, panic button, and safe room.
“You’ll have access to all security systems on your floor,” Marcus said.
“My floor?”
Julian stood behind them.
“The third.”
“How many floors are there?”
“Five.”
“Of course there are.”
Marcus suppressed a smile.
Her bedroom was larger than her apartment.
A fireplace.
A private sitting room.
A marble bathroom.
A closet roughly the size of a boutique.
Lena stood in the doorway.
“I’m not living in this.”
Julian frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing is wrong. That is the problem.”
She pointed toward the bed.
“That blanket probably costs more than my car.”
“You don’t have a car.”
“Exactly.”
For the first time, Julian laughed.
It was quiet.
Unexpected.
And irritatingly attractive.
Lena hated that too.
The next morning began with lawyers.
Her attorney, Rebecca Shaw, was a sharp forty-something woman who wore red glasses and seemed unimpressed by everyone.
She spent four hours rewriting Julian’s contract.
By lunch, Lena had gained independent financial accounts, privacy protections, a guaranteed residence after divorce, full control of any business she created during the marriage, and a clause permitting immediate exit if Julian concealed criminal conduct or material family threats.
Rebecca leaned toward Lena afterward.
“He agreed too easily.”
“That bad?”
“It means either he desperately needs you or he’s planning something the contract doesn’t cover.”
Lena looked through the glass wall where Julian was speaking with Marcus.
“I think both.”
That afternoon, Evelyn arrived.
She no longer looked like the woman at the gate.
But illness was visible now.
Not dramatic.
A grayness beneath her skin.
A careful way she lowered herself into chairs.
Still, her eyes were sharp.
“You look angry,” Evelyn said.
“I am.”
“Good.”
“You bought my landlord’s debt.”
“I paid it.”
“Without asking.”
“You wouldn’t have accepted.”
“That should tell you something.”
Evelyn smiled.
“I like you more every minute.”
Lena sat across from her.
“Why me?”
“I already told Julian.”
“I want you to tell me.”
Evelyn’s smile faded.
“Because when I sat outside those gates looking worthless, forty-three people passed me.”
Lena remained silent.
“Seven looked away. Twelve stared. Eleven security employees discussed removing me. Victoria called me disgusting without recognizing me.”
Evelyn’s eyes softened.
“You stopped.”
“I had food.”
“You had one sandwich.”
Lena looked down.
Evelyn reached across the table.
“My grandson has spent years around people who calculate the value of every relationship.”
“Maybe because your family taught him.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Exactly.”
Lena hadn’t expected agreement.
“What happened to Caroline?”
Evelyn’s hand withdrew.
The room changed instantly.
“You know about her.”
“Yes.”
“What did Julian tell you?”
“That she disappeared three days before their wedding.”
“Anything else?”
“He thinks Richard paid her brother.”
Evelyn looked toward the door.
“Julian loved Caroline.”
“I know.”
“More than was healthy.”
Lena felt an emotion she refused to name.
Evelyn continued.
“When she vanished, something in him changed. He decided trust was a luxury.”
“Did Richard make her leave?”
“I don’t know.”
Lena watched her.
“You’re lying too.”
Evelyn smiled sadly.
“You are going to be inconvenient in this family.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Then Evelyn began coughing.
Once.
Twice.
On the third cough, blood appeared on her handkerchief.
Lena stood.
“Evelyn—”
“I’m fine.”
“That is not fine.”
Evelyn wiped her mouth.
“Julian doesn’t know I started bleeding.”
“You’re telling him.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Lena.”
“You don’t get to recruit me into saving your family and then make me keep medical secrets.”
For once, Evelyn looked genuinely surprised.
Then she laughed.
“You really are perfect.”
“I’m not marrying him because you like me.”
“No.”
Evelyn’s eyes sparkled.
“You’re marrying him because you already care whether he gets hurt.”
Lena stood.
“That is absolutely not true.”
“Of course.”
She left before Evelyn could say anything worse.
That evening, Julian found Lena in the kitchen eating cereal.
“You told me about the blood.”
“Yes.”
“He’s calling her oncologist tomorrow.”
“Good.”
Julian leaned against the island.
“She’s furious with you.”
“She’ll live.”
The joke slipped out.
Both of them went quiet.
Because maybe she wouldn’t.
Julian looked down.
“I’m not ready.”
Lena’s chest tightened.
“For her to die?”
He nodded.
The powerful man who had offered her five million dollars suddenly looked like someone’s frightened grandson.
Lena pushed the cereal toward him.
“Want some?”
He glanced at the bowl.
“What is it?”
“Generic chocolate cereal.”
“That sounds horrifying.”
“It is.”
He sat anyway.
They ate from separate spoons.
It was ridiculous.
But for ten minutes, Julian Ashford wasn’t a billionaire heir.
And Lena wasn’t a broke woman being paid to become his wife.
They were simply two tired people eating terrible cereal at midnight.
Then Marcus entered.
His expression destroyed the moment.
“We found the person who threw the brick.”
Julian stood.
“Who?”
“A courier. Paid cash.”
“By Richard?”
“We don’t know.”
Marcus placed a photograph on the counter.
Lena looked down.
The courier had been captured on a traffic camera.
A man in a baseball cap.
Nothing remarkable.
Until she noticed the ring on his right hand.
Silver.
Engraved with a black V.
Lena frowned.
“I’ve seen that.”
Julian looked at her.
“Where?”
She searched her memory.
Then it hit.
The old photograph online.
Caroline standing beside her brother.
Her brother wore the same ring.
“Caroline’s brother,” Lena whispered.
Julian went pale.
Marcus looked between them.
“What?”
Julian grabbed the photograph.
“His name is Nathan Vale.”
Marcus stared.
“I thought Nathan Vale died six years ago.”
May you like
Julian’s voice dropped.
“So did I.”
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