Act Like You Love Me (Jessica) novel Chapter 186

Chapter 186

David’s POV

“How could you let this happen?”

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My voice wasn’t loud, but it held a jagged edge that made the person on the other end of the line go silent for a heartbeat.

I stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows of my office, the sprawling skyline of the city looking like a toy set I had lost interest in. My grip on the phone was so tight I could feel the casing groan.

“Mr. Tyrone, the legal technicalities were-”

“I don’t care about technicalities,” I interrupted, my eyes narrowing at my own reflection in the glass. “I care about results. You were supposed to ensure she stayed behind bars until the trial. That was the one directive.”

“She had high-level help, sir. The paperwork for her release was processed through a different circuit. By the time we flagged it, Lauren Walter was already walking out of the gates.”

I hung up without another word. I didn’t have the patience for excuses.

For a moment, I just stood there, the silence of the room pressing against my ears. Then, the anger I’d been suppressing finally broke through. I turned and slammed my fist onto the mahogany surface of my desk.

The impact sent a dull thud through my arm, but I barely felt it.

My mind was already racing, calculating the trajectory of a woman who had nothing left to lose and an infinite amount of spite to fuel her.

Lauren was out.

She was a predator who had been cornered, and now that she was free, she wouldn’t go into hiding. She would go for the jugular. She would go for Aaron. She would go for Jessica.

I paced the length of the office, my shoes clicking against the polished floor.

My first instinct was to pick up the phone and alert Aaron. But my thumb hovered over his contact name, hesitating.

Aaron and Jessica had not had an easy road to where they were.

Anyone who knew the full length of what they’d walked through, the years under our grandfather’s reach, the cost of getting out from under it, the things that had been taken from them and the things they’d nearly lost for good, would understand that what they had now was not simply happiness. It was something they’d earned in a way most people never have to.

They had finally found peace.

If I called now, I would be the one to shatter that. I would be the one to drag the darkness back into his living

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Chapter 186

room.

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I can handle this myself, I thought, my jaw tightening. I’ll hire a third-party firm to find Lauren. They don’t need to know yet.

But then, the memory of Fiona hit me. I remembered the last time I’d decided to play the solitary hero.

I remembered the silence I’d kept about her abduction, convinced I could manage the fallout without involving the rest of the family.

That silence had almost cost us everything.

I couldn’t make that mistake again. Not with Lauren.

I tapped the screen, the ringing tone sounding abnormally loud in the quiet room.

I expected Aaron’s guarded, weary greeting. I expected the cockiness that usually came with our phone calls.

Instead, a high-pitched, energetic voice erupted from the speaker.

“Uncle David!”

I felt a sudden, involuntary softening in my chest. The ice that had settled there since the news of Lauren’s release began to thaw, just a little.

“Adrian,” I said, and to my surprise, I found myself smiling. “You sound like you’ve had too much sugar today. How are you doing, kid?”

“I’m great! I got an A on my science project. It was about volcanoes. I used baking soda and vinegar, and it got all over the carpet, but Momma said it was worth it because the eruption was ‘scientifically significant.”

I chuckled, leaning back against the edge of my desk. “Scientifically significant, huh? That sounds impressive. And how are your studies going otherwise? Still the smartest person in your grade?”

“Probably the whole school,” Adrian said with the kind of unearned confidence that only a child-or a Tyrone -could possess.

“Are you coming over soon? You promised to show me that new coding trick on my computer. Dad got me a

new one.”

“I haven’t forgotten,” I assured him. The mention of coding brought a fleeting image of Daphne to my mind, but I pushed it aside,

“Where’s your dad, Adrian?”

“He’s in the kitchen with Mom. They’re making these huge cinnamon rolls because Dad said we needed a ‘celebratory brunch’ for my grade. They’re covered in flour, Uncle David. Dad looks like a powdered donut.”

I closed my eyes for a second, picturing the scene. Aaron, the man who had spent his life looking over his shoulder after Fiona’s betrayal, was currently covered in flour in a sunny kitchen, baking bread with the woman he loved.

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Chapter 186

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They had found their sanctuary. They had built a world where the biggest concern was the mess on the carpet or the rise of a cinnamon roll.

It was beautiful. And it made the news of Lauren’s release feel even more like a violation.

“Uncle David? Are you still there?”

“I’m here.” I said, my voice a bit thicker than before.

“Do you want me to go get Dad?”

“No.” I said quickly. “No, don’t worry about it. It’s nothing urgent. I just wanted to check in.” I cleared my throat, trying to keep my tone light.

“You do me a favor, Adrian? Take care of your parents for me today, okay? Make sure they don’t burn the house down with all that baking.”

Adrian giggled. “I’m the supervisor, Uncle David. I’ve got it under control.”

“I’m sure you do. I’ll call back later. Enjoy your cinnamon rolls.”

I hung up and let the phone drop onto the desk.

The silence rushed back in, but it felt different now-heavier, and more suffocating.

I walked over to my chair and dropped into it, leaning my head back and staring at the ceiling.

I ran my fingers through my hair, exhaling a long, weary breath that felt like it came from the very bottom of my lungs.

I couldn’t tell him. Not yet. I would give them one more week of peace. I would spend the next seven days building a fortress around them so that when I finally did break the news, I could also tell them they were safe.

A soft ping from my computer broke my train of thought.

I sat up, blinking against the glare of the monitors. An email had just landed in my inbox.

From: Daphne

Subject: Final Encryption Specs-Updated

I stared at the screen, and for the first time since the phone call about Lauren, the tightness in my jaw vanished. A genuine smile tugged at the corners of my mouth.

Daphne.

Seeing her name light up the screen felt like a sudden burst of color in a grey room. She was so unapologetically herself, so far removed from the tangled, dangerous web of my life.

Working with her over the last few months had been… different. I was used to people who spoke in curated

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Chapter 186

sentences, people who bowed to the name on the building.

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Daphne didn’t care about the name. She cared about the code, the work, and apparently, the quality of her caffeine intake.

She was a disruption. And as I sat there in the quiet of my office, I realized she was the only disruption I actually looked forward to.

I typed out a brief, formal reply, but I found myself hovering over the keys, wanting to add something more.

Something that wasn’t about servers or protocols. But the professional wall I’d spent years building was still too high, so I settled for: ‘Duly noted. Thank you for the update.’

I clicked send and stood up. I couldn’t stay in this office any longer. The air felt stagnant, filled with the ghosts of Lauren and the weight of the secrets I was currently carrying.

I needed to move. I needed to start the process of securing my cousin’s family.

I grabbed my coat and headed for the private elevator. The lobby was quiet as I stepped out, the evening staff nodding to me as I passed.

My mind was already three steps ahead, planning the meetings I’d have with the security firms, when I rounded the corner toward the main entrance.

I slammed into someone coming from the opposite direction.

“Oh! I’m so sorry-”

I caught her by the elbows to steady her, my apologies already on the tip of my tongue, but the words died before I could speak them.

I looked down at the woman in front of me. She looked older than the last time I’d seen her, her face thinner, her eyes holding a haunted quality that I recognized all too well.

She looked like she’d been through a war and wasn’t entirely sure she’d won.

“Julie?” I breathed, my heart doing a strange, uncomfortable jolt.

Fiona’s sister stared up at me, her breath hitching. She looked like she wanted to run, but her feet were frozen to the marble floor.

“David,” she whispered, her voice trembling.

The unease in my chest, which had been simmering since the news about Lauren, suddenly boiled over.

Julie wasn’t supposed to be here. She hadn’t been in contact with any of us since the aftermath of Fiona’s death.

Her presence here, on the very day Lauren Walter walked free, felt like a coincidence I wasn’t willing to believe in.

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Chapter 186

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“Who are you looking for, Julie?” I asked, my voice dropping into that quiet, probing tone.

She swallowed hard, her eyes darting toward the door. “It doesn’t matter. I should go. I shouldn’t have come.”

I didn’t let go of her arms. “Julie. Look at me. What’s going on?”

She finally met my eyes, and the sheer terror I saw there made my blood run cold. Whatever she was here to tell me, it wasn’t going to make my day any easier.

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12:06 Thu, Mar 26

Chapter 187