Chapter 8

I don't know how long I stood outside that door. The sky went pale, then bright, and the cold in my chest dulled into nothing. Finally I dragged my body, drained past its limit, to the living room.

I sat on the sofa and waited. Somewhere in the haze, a shadow fell across the light in front of me.

Cyril stood there in nothing but a robe, the smell of what he'd just done still clinging to him.

He saw my purple lips, my body locked stiff with cold, and something like guilt and pity flickered through his eyes. Then he remembered I was the jealous one who'd tried to hurt Melanie and her baby, and his face hardened again.

"Do you understand what you did wrong?"

I kept my eyes down, looking at the nail I'd torn off pounding on that door all night. "I was wrong," I said quietly.

Wrong to make love the whole of my life.

Wrong to keep hoping, again and again, that blood would mean something.

Then Cyril noticed the blood seeping down my leg, and his heart lurched. He reached out, as if to pull me upright before I dropped. "Julie—"

"Help! Miss Melanie is trying to kill herself!"

A maid's terrified scream tore down from upstairs. Cyril grabbed my arm and dragged me up the steps with him.

Melanie was leaning out over the window ledge. He flung me aside and seized her, holding her tight.

She broke into loud sobbing, the acting laid on thick. "She'll never let me go! If there's a next time, I'd rather just die now and give you back to her—"

His eyes cooled by degrees, then turned to me.

"That won't happen. She came here to kneel and apologize to you."

"What? I will never—" I jerked back, stunned.

But he signaled the bodyguards. They pinned me down hard, forced me onto my knees.

"Do something wrong, you pay for it." His voice was flat. "Help your mistress."

A bodyguard fisted my hair and slammed my forehead down against the cold floor. Once. Again. Again.

Blood blurred my sight. Beside me came Melanie's false little plea. "Forget it, Cyril. It's our wedding day. Let her off. She's my sister, after all."

"All right. You always were the kind one. The guests are already here—let's go."

He lifted her up into his arms, and she laughed through her tears, carried off in big easy strides.

Not once, from start to finish, did he look back at me.

I lay collapsed on the floor while my phone buzzed, one message after another.

First my birth mother. "It's Melanie and Cyril's wedding today. You'd be smart to know your place and stay away from any trouble."

Then my brother, Lucas. "Swear you'll never fight Melanie over anything again, and I'll allow you to come take the family photo."

The last one was from Cyril. "Julie, once the wedding's over, I have a surprise for you. You're going to love it."

A family photo? A surprise?

How sickening.

No. I don't need anything from you anymore.

There's no greater surprise than watching every one of you get what you deserve.

I started to laugh, and laughed until it broke into a fit of coughing.

Then I forced myself up off the floor, pressed an envelope into Fiona's hands, and told her to deliver it to Cyril herself, at the very height of the wedding.

The dark swam up over my eyes, and in the moment I fell, a man came rushing toward me.

"Julie!"

He caught me clean and lifted me into his arms. His chest was warm and solid.

"I've got you, baby. I've come to take you home."

I caught hold of his sleeve, gripping it with both hands, and ground out every word through my teeth.

"I want Cyril to never find me. Ever."

Edwin laid me down in the car and gently wiped the blood from the corner of my eye. "Don't worry. I've already destroyed the Julie Henson identity. From now on there's only Julie Delgado, anywhere in the world."

"Whoever hurt you—I'll make sure they die badly."

The car raced us toward the airport.

On a huge billboard screen along the road, a lavish wedding was playing live.

I watched it, and the corner of my mouth curved up in something close to scorn.

Cyril. I'm looking forward to the most "spectacular" moment of your wedding.

Goodbye, for good.

I hope you like the wedding gift I left you.