He Bought His Mistress A Penthouse In The Building I Own Chapter 15

He Bought His Mistress A Penthouse In The Building I Own Chapter 15: The Empty Apartment

The door to apartment 4B hung open, the brass deadbolt completely busted.

I placed my palm flat against the chipped white paint and pushed. The hinges groaned, revealing the absolute chaos inside.

“I secured the bail!” Julian’s voice echoed off the bare walls. “I told you I would fix it, Chloe. I told you I would come back for you.”

“You used a strip-mall bondsman!” Chloe shouted back. “They are going to break your legs by Friday when you default on the premium!”

I stepped quietly over the threshold.

The living room looked like a hurricane had ripped through it. Empty velvet hangers littered the cheap laminate flooring. Designer shoe boxes lay crushed near the sofa. A shattered makeup palette stained the rug in streaks of bronze and pink, marking the exact spot where panic had taken over.

Julian knelt dead center in the mess.

He clutched Chloe’s left ankle with both hands. His knuckles turned stark white from the strain. He wore the same wrinkled navy suit he had on during his arrest. The fabric was stained with sweat and jailhouse grime.

“I have a plan,” Julian pleaded. He dragged his knees across the floor as she tried to step away. “Reyes Interiors still has physical assets. I can liquidate the office hardware. I can sell the company vehicles.”

“Company vehicles?” Chloe let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “You don’t own those cars, Julian. The bank does. You are facing five years in a federal penitentiary, and your grand strategy is to sell leased sedans?”

“Sera won’t let it go to trial. I know her.”

I leaned my shoulder against the wooden doorframe. My leg muscles pulled dead tight, locking my knees rigidly in place. I kept my mouth shut, letting the scene play out.

“She put you in a cage, Julian!” Chloe yanked her leg, but his grip held firm. She grabbed a handful of silk blouses from the bed and shoved them into her open suitcase. “She froze your bank accounts. She towed your car. She humiliated you in front of Victor Kane. Your fiancée is going to bury you.”

“She is just trying to teach me a lesson. She wants me to crawl back to her.” Julian’s voice took on a sickening tone of confidence. “I can manipulate her. I always do. She is obsessed with me.”

A cold knot formed in my stomach. I crossed my arms, digging my fingernails into the sleeves of my trench coat.

“Let go of me,” Chloe demanded.

“I will call Richard Montgomery,” Julian offered, his tone shifting back to frantic desperation. “You said he had active accounts. I will pitch him a partnership. I can bring my client list over to his firm.”

“Your client list?” Chloe scoffed. “Your clients are Seraphina’s friends! They blocked your number the second the police hauled you out of Apex Financial.”

“Not all of them. I have independent contacts.”

“Name one.”

Julian opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He stared at the scratched floorboards, his mind desperately searching for a lifeline that didn’t exist.

“Exactly,” Chloe sneered. “You are a parasite who lived off his fiancée’s trust fund. And now the host cut you off.”

Julian’s face flushed a deep, ugly crimson. “Don’t talk to me like that. I bought you those clothes. I paid the lease on this apartment!”

“With her money!” Chloe fired back. “None of it was yours.”

“We belong together. You said you loved me. You said you wanted to build a life with me.”

“I wanted to build a life with a millionaire,” she corrected harshly. “I loved the man who paid my rent and bought me diamonds. I loved the man who was going to buy me a penthouse at the Azure Coast. That man is gone.”

“I can still get the penthouse! The developer knows me.”

“The developer laughed you out of the sales center!” Chloe screamed. “You have nothing. Your credit score is ruined. Your reputation is destroyed. You are a walking liability.”

“I bought you a ring!” Julian yelled. He pointed a trembling finger at her hand. “I overdrew my last hidden credit card to buy that for you. I gave you everything I had left.”

Chloe stopped packing.

She looked down at the massive stone glittering on her finger. A cruel, mocking smile spread across her lips.

She twisted the metal band off her knuckle.

“A ring?” she asked, her tone dropping to a dangerous whisper.

“Two carats,” he insisted, his chest heaving with desperate breaths. “Custom setting. I picked it out myself.”

“I took it to a jeweler yesterday morning.” Chloe held the ring up to the overhead light. “While you were sitting in a holding cell, crying to your lawyer.”

Julian’s jaw went slack. The frantic energy drained out of him.

“It is cubic zirconia,” she spat. “A cheap, worthless piece of glass.”

“The jeweler lied to you. They try to scam people into buying replacements—”

“Shut up!”

Chloe kicked her foot forward with brutal force. The thick rubber sole of her sneaker connected solidly with his collarbone.

Julian tumbled backward. His hands finally slipped off her ankle. He hit the floor hard, his elbows slamming against the laminate wood.

Before he could recover, Chloe reared her arm back.

She threw the ring directly at his face.

The heavy metal band struck his cheekbone with a sharp, sickening crack.

A bright red welt instantly welled up on his pale skin. The fake diamond bounced off his face and skittered across the room, disappearing under the sofa.

Julian touched his cheek. He stared at his fingers, checking for blood.

“You are pathetic,” Chloe told him.

She grabbed the zipper of her massive suitcase and yanked it shut violently.

I remained perfectly still in the doorway. The tension in my calves intensified. Watching him grovel on the floor didn’t bring any grand sense of victory. It just showcased exactly how low he could sink for a woman who only valued his wallet.

“Chloe, wait!” Julian scrambled back onto his knees, reaching out empty hands. “Please. I have nowhere else to go. She changed the locks on the house.”

“Go sleep in your office,” she suggested coldly. “Assuming you still have the keys.”

She grabbed the retractable handle of her luggage. She didn’t spare him a second glance.

She spun around, keeping her head down as she dug her cellphone out of her designer purse.

“I will get the money!” Julian screamed at her back.

Chloe ignored him. She took three fast, aggressive strides toward the hallway exit.

She never looked up.

She slammed entirely into my chest.