Chapter 2 - The Empty Empire
I didn't look back. I boarded my flight to Ohio, where my sister had offered me a fresh start and a job at her bakery. Surviving a flight with triplets was a chaotic blur of spilled juice, crying, and sheer exhaustion. But every time I looked at their beautiful faces, I knew I had won. I had the treasure. Julian just had money.
Miles below us, Julian’s life was unraveling.
He didn't get on the plane to Paris. He left his fiancée, Victoria, screaming in the middle of Terminal 4, walked out of the airport, and told his driver to take him back to his Manhattan penthouse.
For the first time in his life, the sprawling, thirty-million-dollar apartment felt like a tomb.
He poured himself a glass of scotch, his hands shaking so violently the liquid spilled onto the marble counter. He couldn't stop seeing their faces. Those hazel eyes. The way the little boy had reached out to him.
Three.
He had walked away from one child because he was terrified of failure, terrified of vulnerability. He had convinced himself he was doing the right thing, that he was protecting his corporate empire. But staring out at the New York skyline, all he felt was a crushing, suffocating emptiness.
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His phone buzzed. It was Victoria, demanding an explanation, threatening to call off their upcoming corporate merger.
Julian stared at the phone. For a year and a half, he had built a fortress of wealth and superficial relationships to hide his guilt. And Clara, with a single look, had torn it all down. He threw the phone against the wall, watching it shatter into a hundred pieces.
