The Family Photo That Didn’t Have Me In It Chapter 06

The Family Photo That Didn’t Have Me In It Chapter 06

Autumn arrived early in the north, and the wind already carried a biting, freezing edge.

I was walking down the steps of the university library, cradling a stack of data sheets, when a figure suddenly stepped out from behind the pillars to block my path.

Julian stood there in a thin trench coat, his lips completely purple from the cold, yet he still maintained that exact same patronizing, paternalistic posture.

“Rowan, how much longer are you going to keep up this childish act?” he asked, his eyes dropping to the files in my arms with a slight frown.

“A research lab in a wasteland like this is brutal. Why put yourself through this kind of misery?”

“Come home with me. Skyler is crying herself to sleep every night in that cell, and your mom’s blood pressure is dangerously high from the stress.”

“If you just go to the police and tell them you two had a misunderstanding and you were the one who made the mistake, I’ll hire the best defense attorneys in the state. I swear it won’t stay on your permanent record.”

“As her sister, do you really want to watch your entire family fall apart over a minor mistake?”

I looked at the man standing in front of me.

—

He had flown over a thousand miles, not because he cared if I was freezing or exhausted, but to push me right back into the furnace for them.

“Julian, are you legally insane?” I asked, my voice entirely flat.

“The security footage is ironclad, and the state has already filed charges. You’re asking me to commit a felony for her?”

“Do you think the police are blind, or do you honestly think the legal system revolves around your family?”

Julian blinked, caught off guard. “Rowan, stop taking your anger out on me,” he said, softening his voice as he reached out to grab my arm.

“If you just help Skyler and get your parents through this crisis, I promise I will make it up to you tenfold.”

“Just like when we were kids. I’ll protect you forever, okay?”

I swung my arm back, easily evading his touch.

“Don’t bring up our childhood, Julian. It makes me sick.”

“You talked a big game about protecting me, but your hands were always busy handing my things over to Skyler.”

“Your idea of being good to me was watching her throw a tantrum and then tearing up the only photo of my grandmother I had left, just to cater to her vanity.”

Julian’s face went entirely pale.

“Rowan, is this guy bothering you?” a crisp, masculine voice interrupted.

—

Nolan walked down the steps, naturally taking the heavy folders from my arms while casting a frigid glance at Julian.

“Sir, this is a restricted access zone for the national laboratory. Unauthorized personnel aren’t permitted on this quad.”

Julian looked at Nolan, a flash of panicked defensive territoriality hitting his eyes. “I’m her fiancé! I’m here to take my future wife home. Do you have a problem with that?”

“He isn’t even an ex-boyfriend,” I cut in without a shred of mercy.

“Nolan, I don’t know this person. Could you call campus security? There’s an individual harassing students on the steps.”

Nolan immediately pulled his radio from his belt.

The gentle, composed facade Julian took pride in cracked entirely. “Rowan Sterling! You’re seriously setting security on me?”

“Do you honestly not care if your parents live or die? Where is your basic human decency!”

Two campus security officers arrived within moments, grabbing Julian by the arms and dragging him down the pavement.

He thrashed against their grip, screaming back over his shoulder.

“You’re going to regret this! You think you can actually amount to anything in this world without the Sterling family backing you?!”

I stood on the stone steps, watching his pathetic departure.

“Open your eyes and watch me, Julian,” I murmured to the empty air. “Without you parasites bleeding me dry, I am going to shine brighter.”

—

than any of you could ever dream.”

Julian was escorted off campus property and forced to board the first flight back south.

The moment his plane touched down, his phone rang with a frantic call from Garrett.

“Julian! Did you bring that bitch back with you or not?!”

“The victim’s family is demanding a fifty thousand dollar settlement, or they refuse to sign a civil waiver!”

“Dad’s accounts are completely frozen—we don’t have that kind of cash!”

“Tell Rowan to get her ass back here right now! She’s spent her whole life hoarding her money; she has to have a massive savings account!”

Julian held the phone against his ear, standing in the middle of the chaotic terminal baggage claim as Garrett screamed over the line.

But for the first time in his life, he couldn’t find a single word to say.