Auctioned While Pregnant: 99 Nights Of My Husband’s Betrayal Chapter 10
So that was it.
The reason the man who’d once memorized my coffee order and warmed my coat before I asked for it had turned into something unrecognizable overnight.
He’d been avenging the wrong woman. Punishing me for crimes that belonged to the person he was protecting.
“Stop talking. I don’t want to see you.”
“Lena—”
He grabbed for my arm. I stepped back. He dropped to his knees on my doorstep. The thud of bone against concrete.
I took another step back.
Julian Sterling. On his knees.
I’d seen boardrooms full of men beg him for mercy. I’d seen grown executives weep trying to get five minutes of his time.
“Lena.”
He looked up. His eyes were empty in a way I’d never seen.
Something dead at the bottom, and beneath that, something still reaching.
“Give me a chance. One chance. I’ll spend the rest of my life making it right.”
My foot connected with the side of his face.
His head snapped right. A red welt bloomed from cheekbone to jaw. He didn’t raise his hands.
He wiped the blood from his lip. Stayed on his knees.
“Lena. Please.”
I pressed the toe of my shoe against his chest. Against the spot where her name used to be.
“You make me sick.”
I pushed. He fell backward onto the concrete. I stepped over him and walked away.
He found me again. Less than a week later.
This time, when he stood in front of me, his shirt collar was open. Deliberately. So I would see.
New ink. Fresh. The skin around it still raised and pink.
LENA.
Same spot. Same place over his heart. Where Claire’s name had lived for years.
“I had it removed.” His voice was quiet. “This one stays. For the rest of my life.”
“You think having my name carved into your skin is something to celebrate?”
I looked at the tattoo. The letters were slightly uneven—done fast, done desperate.
“It makes me sick.”
“That’s not—” He dropped his gaze. “I just… wanted you to be less angry.”
He held out a velvet box. Inside, a ruby necklace. The stones caught the light like drops of frozen blood.
“The one you wanted. From Sotheby’s. It just came to auction again. I outbid everyone.”
I took the box from his hands.
His eyes lit. Just barely. A flicker behind the exhaustion.
I remembered this necklace. I’d wanted it badly once. A lifetime ago.
Why hadn’t I gotten it then?
Oh. Right. Someone had outbid me. Julian. For Claire.
Claire always did love taking my things.
I held the necklace up. Let it catch the light one last time.
Then I threw it over the railing.
It disappeared into the ocean without a sound.
“Go find it. Bring it back, and I’ll forgive you.”
His breath stopped.
I smiled.
“See? What’s lost is lost. You can’t get it back.”
I turned and walked away.
Behind me—a splash. Heavy. Immediate.
I spun around. The railing was empty. The surface of the water was still closing over the place where he’d gone in.
He crawled onto the shore at dawn.
I was still there. I don’t know why.
His hand was clenched so tight around the necklace that the clasp had cut into his palm.
Blood ran between his fingers and dripped onto the sand.
His arms, his chest, his legs—covered in cuts. Scrapes. Deep bruises where rock had met bone in the dark water.
He held the necklace out to me. His hand shook.
“Lena. You can find it. See?”
The rubies were intact. Not a stone missing.
Only the man holding them was destroyed.
“But I don’t want it anymore.”
The light in his eyes went out. Not slowly. All at once.
“Lena.”
He closed his fist around the necklace. Pulled it back against his chest.
“It’ll be okay. I’ll do better. I’ll make you satisfied.”
The words weren’t for me.
They were the kind of thing a man says to himself when he’s run out of things to say to anyone else.
He came again. Not long after.
This time, he wasn’t alone.
“Julian! Julian, I was wrong! The baby is yours! I swear!”
Claire and her mother, bound hand and foot, dragged from the back of a black SUV.
Their faces were streaked with mascara and terror.
Claire’s mother spotted me first. Her eyes went wide, calculating even in panic.
“Lena! Sweetheart! What happened with your father—that was all me! I was the one who ruined your family! “
“If you want someone to punish, punish me! Claire is innocent! Please—tell Mr. Sterling to let her go!”