After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 04

After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 04

I had a thousand more questions.

But the call disconnected.

I stared at the dark screen, unable to describe what I was feeling.

It was as if fate had played the cruelest joke imaginable.

Yet somehow, it had also ripped open a crack in destiny itself, giving me one chance to change everything.

I didn’t hesitate.

I packed my suitcase and prepared to leave.

The moment I rolled it toward the front door, my phone lit up.

A video from Vivian.

The footage was dark and shaky.

In a narrow alley, Julian was pinned face-first into muddy pavement while several men beat him mercilessly.

Blood covered his face.

Vivian’s panicked voice echoed from behind the camera.

[“Chloe! Julian got attacked protecting me! Loan sharks are beating him to death! Please save him! We’re behind the abandoned meatpacking plant in South Side!”]

I watched the clip over and over.

Without warning, another memory surfaced.

The day Julian and I first met.

I’d been tending bar when a tattooed biker cornered me and started harassing me.

Julian had smashed a beer bottle, pressed the jagged glass against the biker’s throat, and said with absolute confidence,

“Touch her again, and I’ll bury you.”

Only later had I learned what the name Julian Thorne meant among Aurelion’s wealthiest families.

A tear slid down my cheek.

For the first time, I understood.

I’d always owed Julian.

I had to repay that debt before the ties between us could finally be severed.

I tossed my suitcase into the trunk and sped toward South Side.

Even if my heart had already turned to ash…

I still couldn’t watch the man I’d once loved die.

I raced toward the alley behind the abandoned meatpacking plant.

The night air cut like ice.

Suddenly my phone vibrated violently.

A message from Future Julian popped onto the screen.

[Don’t go! It’s a trap! Vivian set the whole thing up! Run!]

Too late.

The instant I stepped into the dead-end alley, seven or eight massive men emerged from every direction.

Steel pipes glinted beneath the streetlights as they boxed me into the corner.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The sharp rhythm of high heels echoed through the alley.

Vivian stepped out of the shadows, casually twirling Julian’s custom lighter between her fingers.

There wasn’t a trace of fear left on her sweet, innocent face.

Only triumph.

Only cruelty.

She smiled down at me.

“Chloe… you really do come running whenever you’re called.”

Her crimson lips curved into a vicious grin.

“Beat her.”

“Beat her until she’s barely breathing.”

“And aim for her stomach.”

“Kick it until there’s nothing left.”

The steel pipes came crashing down.

My back.

My abdomen.

My legs.

Every blow exploded through me.

The sickening cracks of breaking bones mixed with blinding pain until every nerve in my body screamed.

I collapsed into the filthy mud, curling around my abdomen.

The place where my baby had been.

The place that was still bleeding.

Warm blood streamed into my eyes until the whole world dissolved into crimson.

“That’s enough.”

Vivian walked over with visible disgust.

“Leave her crippled.”

“Just don’t kill her.”

She stepped on my blood-covered fingers with the needle-sharp heel of her designer pump.

Then she ground down harder.

Agony shot through all ten fingers at once.

I opened my mouth to scream.

Nothing came out.

Only ragged, broken gasps.

The men finally left.

I lay abandoned in a pool of blood like yesterday’s trash.

Using the last strength I had left, I dragged my nearly useless legs across the rough pavement.

A thick trail of blood followed behind me.

My fingernails tore backward as they scraped against the brick wall.

Skin ripped open.

Blood smeared across the concrete.

Inch by inch…

I crawled toward the mouth of the alley.

The instant I reached the street…

A car screeched to a stop.

Julian leaped out.

His face was filled with panic.

He ran straight past me.

“Baby, don’t be scared.”

“I’m here.”

“No one’s going to hurt you.”

His voice shook with desperate relief.

His eyes overflowed with love.

But none of it was for me.

It was all for Vivian.

I lay less than ten feet away.

Covered in blood.

Bones shattered.

One step from death.

All Julian had to do was turn his head.

He would have seen me.

He never did.

There was room for only one woman in his eyes.

Vivian.

So six years of life and death together…

Had lost to another woman’s tears.

As consciousness slipped away, someone reached into the blood and lifted me effortlessly into strong arms.

A low, lazy voice drifted above me, edged with cold amusement.

“Chloe Rhodes.”

“You nearly got yourself killed over a piece of trash.”

“That’s a hell of a talent.”