Chapter 5 - THE GHOST FROM THE PAST
The silence at the table was thick enough to cut with a diamond cutter. Chloe looked back and forth between Elena and the billionaire tech titan like she was watching a tennis match played by ghosts.
“You… you two know each other?” Chloe managed to choke out, her eyes bulging.
Julian didn’t take his eyes off Elena. He pulled out the empty velvet armchair across from her without waiting for an invitation and sat down, resting his forearms on the table. The raw, magnetic energy he exuded seemed to shrink the entire grand lobby down to the circumference of their table.
“Know each other?” Julian repeated, a dry, melancholic humor in his voice. “Chloe, was it? Your friend here broke my heart into about a thousand pieces twelve years ago at Northwestern University, packed up her bags, and pretended I didn’t exist.”
Elena laughed—a real, musical sound that made Julian’s chest tighten. “You were an arrogant physics major who thought he could calculate the trajectory of human emotion, Julian. You deserved to be humbled.”
“And you were the most stubborn, brilliant woman in the Midwest who refused to let me pay for your coffee,” Julian retorted, his eyes softening as he looked at her. “Though, looking at the papers on this table and hearing about a certain circus act at the Ashford Hotel last night… I’d say you still have a knack for dramatic exits.”
Chloe gasped, sitting up straight. “Wait. You heard about Daniel?”
“Word travels fast when you own half the real estate blocks in downtown Chicago, Chloe,” Julian said smoothly, though his jaw tightened just a fraction, a dangerous glint flashing in his blue eyes. “Let’s just say my security detail forwarded me a very interesting video compilation from the Ashford ballroom around midnight. A man named Daniel Carter, I believe?”
Elena’s expression cooled slightly, the warmth retreating behind her professional shield. “Daniel is past tense, Julian. As of twelve hours ago.”
“Good,” Julian said simply, his voice dropping an octave, losing all its playful banter and turning into something heavy, certain, and absolute. “Because I’ve spent the last ten years watching you build clean-water systems across the globe while some ungrateful fraud took credit for your air. I’m not planning on letting you out of my sight again.”
Chloe let out a little squeak and pretended to choke on her napkin to hide her grin.
“Julian, I am in the middle of a messy, multi-million-dollar divorce proceeding,” Elena said, tapping the legal pad. “I don't need a savior. I need an arbitration timeline.”
“You don't need a savior, Elena. You never did,” Julian said, reaching across the table and resting his hand palm-up inches from hers, not quite touching, giving her all the space in the world. “You need an anvil. And lucky for you, I brought a very large one.”
He pulled a thick, leather-bound document from the inside pocket of his jacket and slid it across the table, right over Daniel’s petition for divorce.
Elena glanced down at the title page. Her breath hitched.
It wasn't a personal letter. It was a corporate acquisition proposal for Carter Legal Consulting—Daniel’s pride and joy, the firm he had neglected her for, the firm he thought he owned outright.
Julian’s venture capital firm had just quietly bought up eighty-five percent of Daniel’s primary corporate debt portfolio before the stock market even opened.
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“He thinks he traded you for a trophy, Elena,” Julian whispered, his blue eyes locking onto hers with terrifying, beautiful devotion. “Let’s show him what bankruptcy actually feels like.”
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