AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She glanced at the paper again. “Is this what you were talking to Kyle about earlier?”
“No.”
“Really? Kyle just left this here without mentioning it.”
“Maybe we discussed it. It’s nothing, though.”
“Leave him in a foreign country with no passports. This doesn’t look like nothing. This looks like a list of ways to go after Luke. Are you and Kyle seriously getting along because you’re planning something against him?”
Grant shook his head but failed to answer. He didn’t want to lie to her, but he didn’t want to tell the truth.
“So, Kyle is planning something?”
“Planning is a strong word…”
Her eyes went wide, and he winced. He’d seen her angry once before and it looked like this would be round two. “I can’t believe this. Why would you do this?”
“Julia…”
“Yeah?” she prodded when he failed to continue.
“He…I…it just…”
She rose from her seat with a shake of her head. “Unbelievable.”
“Come on, Julia, it’s not like we’ve done anything to him yet.”
“Yet?” She sucked in a breath as she searched the air above her for something.
“Well…he did kind of expose himself to this when he teamed up with Lydia and waltzed into my house last night to steal my wife.”
“Your fake wife,” she corrected. “And he has no idea what kind of monster Lydia is. He thinks she’s a nice person who helped him build a business. It’s not like he knowingly joined her plan to destroy you or that he thinks he’s doing anything wrong when it comes to our marriage.”
“Oh, please. If he was a half-decent judge of character, he’d see right through Lydia. And even if he wasn’t, we got married for a reason. It would be nice if he respected that instead of trying to create chaos and win you back.”
Her jaw dropped open before she pressed her lips together, her features twisting. “Leave Luke alone.”
“I will defend what’s mine against Lydia and against him.”
She offered him an incredulous stare. “Defend? Is that what you call it?” Her voice rose, tinged with disbelief and colored by anger. “Against Lydia, maybe. But against someone who is naive about what’s really going on here? No.”
Grant pressed his lips together, stifling a sigh before he tried to respond.
“This isn’t you, Grant.” Her features pinched again. “Or maybe I don’t know the real you.”
The comment struck his heart and his shoulders slumped. “Julia…” he started, his voice a mix of frustration, upset, and desperation to explain what he couldn’t even understand himself.
“I thought you were better than this.” She shook her head again, the weight of her disappointment clear before she spun on a heel and stormed from the room.
“Julia!” he called, leaping from his seat but she had already disappeared up the stairs.
He collapsed into his chair again, his heart thudding as he grappled with the conflict of protecting what was his with the realization that his actions had pushed Julia even closer to the thing he was desperate to keep her from.
The image of Julia in Luke’s embrace haunted him, igniting a fire of jealousy he hadn’t known he could feel.
His frustration with the situation was now compounded by the fear of losing his wife if he’d ever truly had her to begin with. Her statement echoed in his head. Your fake wife.
Those three words issued a sharp jab to his already bruised heart as one question burned through his mind. Was he losing Julia?
