The night my husband broke my arm, he leaned close and whispered, ‘You should’ve listened to me.’ At the hospital, he told everyone it was an accident—until the X-ray technician looked up and said my name in a voice I hadn’t heard in two years. ‘Elena?’ My blood ran cold. Because the man staring at my bruises was my brother… and in that moment, Garrett’s perfect lie began to collapse. – usnews
a microscopic recording device to my ribs, right beneath the swell of my breasts. I wore a flowing, heavy cashmere maternity dress to completely conceal the wire.
My heart was pounding so violently against my ribcage I was genuinely terrified the microphone would pick up the chaotic thudding instead of our voices.
“We have visual and audio feeds, Clara,” Agent Miller said through the tiny earpiece hidden under my thick hair. “We have tactical teams stationed in the stairwells and the service elevators. He will not lay a finger on you. Just get him talking. Get him to admit to the financial control, the insurance, the assault. If you feel unsafe, say the code word ‘ocean’, and we will breach immediately.”
I nodded, my throat too dry to speak.
A black SUV drove me to the site. I rode the rattling construction elevator up fifty floors, the cold wind whipping
through the exposed shafts.
When the elevator doors opened to the raw, concrete floor of the penthouse, Julian was waiting for me.
He stood near the edge of the floor-to-ceiling windows, overlooking the sprawling metropolis below. He wore a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, his hair impeccably styled. He looked like the cover of a Forbes magazine. He looked like the devil himself.
Julian smiled when he saw me.
It wasn’t a smile of love. It was a smile of profound relief. He truly thought I was coming back to him. He thought his spell was unbroken.
“Clara,” he said smoothly, walking toward me, his eyes glancing at the cast on my arm. He stopped a few feet away, respecting my space, playing the part of the contrite husband. “You came. I knew you would. I knew you would see reason.”
“I’m here, Julian,” I said, forcing my voice to tremble
