My Husband's Twisted Secret Life

ws, painting fleeting patterns of gold and white across Julian's impassive face. The adrenaline from the gala was dra

d coolly announced a multi-million dollar donation in our conjoined names, effectively hijacking the entire event. We hadn't stayed long aft

rior of the car. It felt important to say it, to acknowledge tha

be a public relations blitz. They will double down on your 'instability.' They wil

line of his jaw, the unyielding set of his mouth. "Why are you doing this? The merger... I understand th

ound the faint whisper of the tires on the

sted like a brother. Together, they were on the verge of a major medical breakthrough. But his partner was more ambitious than he was brilliant. He

ed my father. Ruined his reputation, bankrupted him, and stole his research. My father died a f

My father," I whispered, the wo

. "And the failed research project, the one he buried and rebrand

his most valuable weapon. The revelation should have terrified me, made me feel even more like a pawn. But strangely, it did the opposite.

ween us again, but it was different now. It was filled with th

tood by the elevators. "For

morrow." He turned and walked toward his wing of the apartment wit

stume I was desperate to shed. After changing into a simple set of pajamas left for me, I found myself drawn

e a news alert, another vicious headline from my former f

ry about you being committed, and then the photos from the gala. W

suffocating world. In their careful five-year deception, they had managed to isolate me from nearly everyone, but the

ed at my eyes. It was a message of pure, un

he screen. *I'm safe, Soph. It's a long, insane

believed it for a second. But married? To Julia

ily, but it said nothing about my friends. Still, I was terrif

yped. *A means to an en

reful. But know this: I'm on your side. Always. Whatever you need, whenever you need i

ed by enemies and a dangerous, unknowable ally, that one message was a lifeline. It was a flicker of warmth in the vast, echoing emptiness. I wasn't entirely alone a