Chapter 5: Shattered Glass
Audrey
"Inside. Now, Leo, Lucas. Go to Mrs. Higgins!" I ordered, my voice leaving no room for argument. The boys, sensing the shift in the atmosphere and the terror radiating from me, immediately scurried back through the front door. I pulled it shut behind them, the loud click of the lock echoing like a gunshot on the quiet porch.
I turned to face Julian.
He looked like a man who had just been shot in the chest. His face was ghostly pale, his chest heaving, his eyes wide and fixed on the wooden door behind me as if he could still see them.
"They're mine," he whispered, the realization hitting him so hard he visibly swayed. He looked at me, his eyes shining with unshed tears and a sudden, terrifying fury. "You were pregnant when you left. You took my children from me."
"I didn't take them from you, Julian!" I fired back, my own anger suddenly igniting, burning away the fear. "I left you. I didn't even know I was pregnant until a month later!"
"And you didn't tell me?!" he roared, the sound echoing across the mountains. Marcus, who was standing frozen on the stairs, took a nervous step back. "I am their father, Audrey! I have two sons! Three years... I missed three years of their lives!"
"You lost the right to that title the moment you chose your assistant over our marriage!" I screamed back, tears finally stinging my eyes. "You don't get to play the victim here, Julian! I was the one who went to the ultrasound alone. I was the one who almost bled out in a rural hospital giving birth to them. I was the one who stayed awake for weeks, feeding them, holding them, while you were doing god knows what in your billion-dollar towers!"
He flinched as if I had physically struck him. The anger drained from his face, instantly replaced by a soul-crushing agony that made my breath catch.
"Audrey..." he choked out, taking a step toward me, his hands raised in surrender. "Please. I was a fool. A stupid, arrogant, broken fool. The kiss meant nothing. She meant nothing. I fired her the very next day. I have spent every waking second of the last four years looking for you. Bleeding for you."
"Your bleeding doesn't erase the past," I said coldly, crossing my arms over my chest to stop my hands from shaking. "And it doesn't buy you a future here. The deal is off. Take your VP, get back in your helicopter, and leave."
Julian straightened his spine. The broken man vanished, and the ruthless billionaire I used to know slowly returned to his eyes, though the sorrow remained beneath the surface.
"No," he said quietly.
"Excuse me?"
"I'm not leaving," Julian said, his voice dropping to a dangerously calm octave. "I own a fifty percent stake in this town's zoning district, Audrey. I can buy the mountain behind this inn and build a hotel that puts you out of business in a month. Or, you can let me inside. You can let me meet my sons."
"Are you threatening me?" I gasped, disgusted.
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"I am begging you," he corrected, a single tear breaking free and tracking down his cheek. "I am begging you, Audrey. But I am not leaving this mountain without knowing my boys."
We stared at each other, a battlefield of broken vows and undeniable truths stretching between us. He was a billionaire with endless resources. I was a single mother hanging by a financial thread. I knew, in that terrifying moment, that my quiet life was over. The ghost I had been running from had finally caught up.
