I Married The Same Man As My Best Friend Chapter 08

I Married The Same Man As My Best Friend Chapter 08

The night they took Julian, Sterling got its first snow of the season.

The ballroom looked like a grave. Empty chairs. Fallen champagne glasses. Lipstick-stained napkins on the

floor.

The cameras didn’t leave when Julian did. They just turned on Vanessa.

And on Dorian, still sitting in his wheelchair, staring at nothing.

When Vanessa woke up, the reporters were already in her face.

“Vanessa, you instigated Julian to kill his own daughter. Did you think you’d end up here?”

“Vanessa, is Leo even a Roth? Or did you fake that too?”

She swung her arms like a wild animal. Her nails broke off. Her fingers bled.

“Get away! I’m a Roth! My son is the heir! Julian loves me. He’ll come for me-

Harrison’s voice cut through the noise.

“Roth Industries filed for bankruptcy twenty minutes ago.’

He checked his watch. No pity in his eyes.

“Your accounts are frozen, Vanessa. And Leo? Dorian just filed for a paternity test. Until it comes back, the boy stays in foster care.”

Vanessa’s scream followed me all the way to the door.

I pushed Dorian’s wheelchair out into the snow.

my face. For the first time in months, I could breathe.

n’s voice cracked. His thin fingers gripped the armrests. His eyes were red. “I’m sorry. Three

I’d gotten out-if I’d told you what he was-

an.” I stopped walking. Snow fell on my eyelashes. “There’s no ‘if.””

“Lily isn’t coming back.”

I didn’t let Harrison drive me home. I didn’t let Dorian apologize.

I sold the Sterling house.

As for those two facing mansions.

The one that had imprisoned five years of my youth and claimed Lily’s life, I had it burned to ashes a week

ago.

Three months later, the verdict came down.

Julian Roth. First-degree murder, bigamy, false imprisonment.

Death penalty.

Vanessa Shaw. Conspiracy, fraud.

Twenty years.

I saw Julian one last time. The day before his execution.

Behind the video visitation screen at the federal detention center, the man who used to own Sterling was

bald. Hollow-eyed. Ancient.

When he saw me, he reached for the glass like he could touch my face.

“Elise… I had a dream.”

His voice was old. Crumbling.

“Lily was wearing her shoes. She was running on the road. She kept looking back at me. Asking… ‘Daddy, when will you finish the ninety-nine laps?””

I didn’t blink.

I pulled a photo out of my bag and held it to the glass.

Lily on her third birthday. Smiling so hard her eyes disappeared.

“Julian, Lily is cold down there.”

I said it slowly so he’d remember every word.

“She said she doesn’t want your apology. She just wants you to feel what she felt. Bone by bone.”

his head against the glass until the guards dragged him away.

out of the facility and took a deep breath.

x months ago, I thought I’d die on that road.

But I didn’t.

I’m still here. Living for both of us now.

I moved south. A small city.

I didn’t paint anymore. I didn’t dance.

I volunteered at a CASA program. Court-appointed advocate for kids who got a worse start than Lily did.

Sometimes I still dreamed about her.