He Sold My Future to Please Her, I Bought My Freedom With His Money Chapter 08

He Sold My Future to Please Her, I Bought My Freedom With His Money Chapter 08

Julian saw the blade. He moved before he even had time to speak — “What the hell are you doing!” — and he threw himself between us.

He took the blow meant for me. The blade cut across his back, and blood spread through his soaked shirt.

A sound tore out of him — low and choked — and he swung back hard. Chloe hit the floor. The knife clattered out of her hand.

Her eyes went wide at the blood spreading across his back. She scrambled backward, hands over her face. “It wasn’t — she made me — I didn’t!”

Security came running. They had Chloe pinned before she could move. Julian turned to face me — white as paper, sweat cutting through the rain on his forehead.

His eyes dropped to my arm and his face cracked. “You’re bleeding.” His hand came up — hovered an inch from the cut — and pulled back.

“I’m fine.” I stepped back, out of his reach.

“I got it right this time, didn’t I?” A weak smile dragged across his colorless face.

“You were always the one protecting me. Let me do it for once. Can you just… stop shutting me out?”

He watched me, waiting for me to crack — for the version of me that used to cry over his scrapes and bandage him with shaking hands. He thought bleeding for me would be enough to bring that version of me back.

I watched the blood spreading down his back. Then I pulled out my phone. “Hi — I need an ambulance. Knife wound, someone’s been stabbed. The address is—”

I gave them the address and hung up. Julian stared at me like I’d struck him.

“You can’t even — you won’t even ask if I’m okay?” His voice was shaking.

“The ambulance is on its way,” I said. “I’ll have my lawyer cover your medical bills.”

“I don’t want your money — I want you!” He lurched toward me, arms reaching.

The movement ripped his wound wider. He buckled — one knee hitting the floor, a gasp tearing through clenched teeth. “Julian, enough.”

I stood over him. “I’m grateful you took that blade for me. But it doesn’t erase what you did.”

“I’ll change — I swear to God I’ll change. Everything.” He looked up, and his tears hit the tile.

“Anything — I’ll do anything you want. Just don’t leave me. You’re all I have left.”

Sirens cut through the rain — police and an ambulance, pulling up at the same time. Paramedics rushed in with a stretcher.

The police led Chloe out in handcuffs. As she passed me, she stopped and stared.

“Don’t you dare feel good about this. You think he actually loves you?”

“He sees you’re successful now and he wants back in — that’s all you are to him, a meal ticket!” She was screaming. “You deserve each other!”

I didn’t look at her. The paramedics moved toward Julian with the stretcher.

Julian gripped the edge of the stretcher, fighting the paramedics. “Valerie — come with me. Please. I don’t want to go alone.” His eyes were wrecked.

“I have to give my statement at the station.” I turned toward the police car.

“Valerie!” His voice shattered behind me.

I didn’t turn around. I pulled the car door open, got in, and closed it. As we pulled away, the rearview mirror caught him — pinned to the stretcher by two paramedics, one arm still stretched toward the car.

Rain kept falling, thinning the blood on the pavement into nothing. I looked away and sank into the seat.

My arm throbbed. But somewhere deeper — for the first time in three years — something unclenched. It was almost over.