After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 08

After My Future Husband’s Video, I Took $100 Million and Vanished Chapter 08

Vivian wasn’t the first person to find me.

Julian was.

His black Bentley swerved across the road and forced our car to a stop.

The man who had once been the brightest rising star in the business world barely looked human

anymore.

He was gaunt.

Unshaven.

His suit hung loosely from his frame.

A cigarette had burned all the way down to his fingertips, blistering the skin, yet he hadn’t even

noticed.

He stumbled toward me.

His hand reached out instinctively before jerking back as though touching me would burn him.

“Chloe…”

His voice cracked.

“You’re… you’re back.”

He swallowed.

“How have you been these past six months?”

The early winter wind was bitterly cold.

I looked at him without the slightest ripple in my heartbeat.

“Did you need something, Mr. Thorne?”

The formal title struck him like a knife.

His face crumpled.

Tears spilled without warning.

“Chloe… I know I’m unforgivable. I know I don’t deserve to stand in front of you…”

He was crying so hard his words barely made sense.

“I dealt with Vivian. She paid for everything she did.”

“I’ve regretted it every single day.”

“Every night I dream about you lying in that alley covered in blood.”

“I dream that you leave me.”

His knees nearly buckled.

“Please… don’t leave me, Chloe.”

“You can hate me.”

“You can keep me beside you like a dog.”

“Punish me however you want.”

“I’ll do anything.”

“I just want the chance to make things right.”

Before I could answer, a warm wool coat settled gently over my shoulders.

It carried Ethan’s familiar scent of cedar and pine.

He stepped beside me, one arm subtly shielding me.

His voice was colder than the winter air.

“Mr. Thorne.”

“It’s rather inappropriate to harass another man’s fiancée.”

Panic exploded across Julian’s face.

He lunged forward.

“Ethan!”

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“When Chloe and I spent six years building our lives together, where were you?”

“We even had a child!”

“This is between us!”

I lifted a hand, stopping Ethan before he could respond.

A quiet laugh escaped me.

“Julian.”

I looked him straight in the eyes.

“Are you really using our unborn baby to beg for my forgiveness?”

His breathing faltered.

“No…”

He frantically shook his head.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“I just wanted you to remember what we had… how deeply we were connected…”

“Connected?”

I stepped closer.

Each word cut like glass.

“Six months ago, while you were upstairs sleeping with her in the window seat…”

“I sat downstairs listening to your flirting through the dashcam recording.”

“Was that our connection?”

Every trace of color drained from Julian’s face.

His lips trembled uncontrollably.

I didn’t stop.

“That same day…”

“I was lying alone on a freezing operating table.”

“My baby…”

“The baby who would have called you Dad…”

“My baby was being scraped out of my body piece by piece.”

My eyes never left his.

“And while that was happening…”

“You were eating cake with Vivian to celebrate your sixth anniversary.”

“Please…”

Julian covered his ears.

“Chloe… please stop…”

Tears streamed down his face.

I continued as calmly as a judge delivering sentence.

“Do you remember the alley behind the abandoned meatpacking plant on South Side?”

His entire body froze.

His eyes widened with horror.

“When you ran out of your car…’

“You pulled Vivian into your arms.”

“You held her so tightly you were shaking.”

I spoke quietly.

“I was lying in a pool of my own blood.”

“Three steps away.”

“My body was still recovering from the abortion.”

“She had hired people to kick me in the stomach over and over until I started bleeding internally.”

“I watched you rush past me…”

“You never even looked at me.”

“You went straight to the woman who wasn’t hurt at all.”

His pupils contracted violently.

A cold smile curved my lips.

“After Ethan saved my life…”

“The version of you from five years in the future called me.”

[Congratulations, Chloe. You finally broke free from me. Now you can start living again.]

I looked at the broken man before me.

There was nothing left in my heart but still water.

“I think…”

“I should thank that future version of you.”

“The moment I lay on that freezing operating table…”

“The moment I almost bled to death in that alley…”

“I stopped hating you.”

I held his devastated gaze for one final second.

“Julian.”

“Don’t ever appear in front of me again.”

I turned away without another glance.

Looping my arm through Ethan’s, I got into the car.

In the rearview mirror, Julian collapsed onto his knees in the freezing wind.

Like a stray dog that had lost everything.

His broken screams faded into the falling snow.