CHAPTER 12 — THE HUSBAND WHO KNEW
They took Julian to an underground medical suite owned by Nathan.
A former military surgeon removed the bullet.
“He’ll live,” the surgeon said. “But he lost a lot of blood.”
Evelyn stood beside the bed.
For ten years, Julian had controlled where she went, who she saw, and how she spoke. He had turned cruelty into routine.
She should have felt nothing for him.
Instead, she felt anger that he might die before answering her questions.
Mara enlarged the wedding photograph.
“The number on the back belongs to a storage room at Grand Central Station.”
“Room forty-two,” Evelyn said.
Nathan studied Julian.
“He knew Daniel attended the wedding.”
“Maybe.”
“Or he placed him there.”
Julian’s eyes opened.
Evelyn leaned over him.
“What happened at our wedding?”
He smiled weakly.
“You looked beautiful.”
She gripped the rail of the bed.
“Answer me.”
“I didn’t know who he was at first. Mother called him Mr. Grey.”
“Why was he there?”
“To watch you marry me.”
“Why?”
Julian turned his head.
“Because the marriage was his idea.”
Evelyn stepped back.
“No.”
“He chose me.”
“You’re lying.”
“He said you needed to enter the Thorne family. He said pain would make you patient.”
The words hit harder than the punch she had given Julian.
“My father told you to hurt me?”
“He told me to keep you close. The rest was mine.”
Julian’s voice cracked.
“I won’t pretend I was innocent.”
Nathan moved toward him.
“Where is Daniel now?”
“I don’t know. Mother transferred him after the wedding.”
“Then what is in Room Forty-Two?”
Julian’s eyes moved toward Evelyn.
“A confession.”
“Whose?”
“Yours.”
Evelyn stared at him.
“I never made one.”
“You did. You just don’t remember.”
The monitors began beeping faster.
Mara checked the intravenous line.
Someone had inserted a second tube through the wall behind the bed.
Poison was entering Julian’s bloodstream.
Nathan tore it free.
The lights went out.
A woman’s voice echoed through the medical suite.
“Evelyn, you have spent years pretending to be a victim.”
Celeste stood in the doorway.
Her face was calm.
May you like
Too calm.
“But you volunteered for Nightingale before any of us did.”
