My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 139

I know who she is

+25 BONUS

I know who she is

~Julian-

I had been standing on the terrace for ten minutes when she found me.

The dinner had ended the way it was always going to end, Katia dropping something devastating and then going back to her meal while everyone else adjusted to the impact. had watched it happen from across the table and felt something close to admiration. The Victor information had not surprised me. I had the photograph. I had known for weeks. What had surprised me was that Katia had it too and had held it this long before using it.

She had chosen the right moment.

I heard Delia’s footsteps behind me. I did not turn around.

“Julian,” she said.

“Delia.”

$

She came to stand beside me. The Windsor estate grounds stretched out below the terrace in the dark formal gardens, the oak tree my father had planted the year I was born, and the deep quiet of land that had belonged to one family for generations.

“I know who she is,” Delia said.

I said nothing.

“Your wife.” She kept her voice low. “The Las Vegas certificate. Jules and Kat.” She paused. “I know.”

I looked at the garden.

“Get some sleep, Delia,” I said.

“I’m not finished.”

“You are, actually.” I turned to look at her then. She was watching me with the expression she had developed over the past months the calculating stillness of someone who had been watching and filing and building something. I had underestimated her once. I did not underestimate her now. “Whatever you think you know, whatever your investigator found or didn’t find – keep it to yourself.”

“Or what?”

“Or nothing,” I said. “I’m not threatening you. I’m advising you.” I looked back at the garden. “You have been making increasingly poor decisions, Delia. Dubai. The Catwoman claim. Tonight.” I paused. “Victor Hale.”

She went very still beside me.

“I knew,” I said. “Before tonight, before Katia said anything at that table, I knew you had gone to his penthouse. I had photographs. I kept it to myself because what you do with your private life is your own business, and frankly, I have never had any interest in it.” I kept my voice completely level. “But you walked into that dining room tonight and you put me in a position where my family sat at the same table and watched the whole thing unravel. My grandmother. My sister. Your parents.” I turned to face her directly. “You made it public. Not me. Not Katia. You.”

Delia said nothing,

“You want to talk about what you know?” I said. “Fine. Here is what I know. Victor Hale is not a man you play games with. He is not a man who has dinner with married women out of the goodness of his heart. Whatever he told you, whatever he offered you, he is using you. And you are letting him because you are angry and you want leverage and you have confused those two things with a strategy.”

“Julian-

I know who she is

+25 BONUS

“I’m not finished.” I said it quietly. No heat. Just fact. “My grandmother has said nothing tonight. She sat at that table and she watched and she said nothing. But I know her, Delia, better than anyone at that table, and what she was thinking was very clear to me.” I paused. “She is going to ask me to end this arrangement. It is a matter of time weeks, not months. And when she does, I am going to agree.” Hooked at her. “Which suits me perfectly. Because this was never a marriage. It was never going to be a marriage. And whatever you have been telling yourself about what this was, you need to stop telling yourself that story now.

PA

The night was cold. The garden below was completely still.

“You never wanted this,” Delia said. Her voice had shifted never even tried.”

the calculation dropped, something underneath it exposed. “You

“No,” I said. “I didn’t.”

“Because of her.”

I did not answer that.

“Because of Katia,” she said. “You have been—”

2

“Delia.” I said her name the way I said it when a conversation had reached its end. “Go inside. Talk to your parents. Go back to Brooklyn tomorrow and think carefully about what you do next, because the choices you make in the next few weeks are going to matter.” I picked up my glass from the terrace railing. “Victor Hale is not your ally. Whatever he told you at that dinner, whatever he has offered you he is building something with your information, and when he is finished building it, he will not need you anymore.” I paused. “I am telling you this not because I care about protecting you. I am telling you this because you are still technically attached to the Windsor name, and what happens to you reflects on this family.”

–

She was looking at me with an expression I had not seen before. Not anger. Not calculation. Something rawer than both.

“You are genuinely the coldest person I have ever met,” she said.

“Yes,” I agreed. “Probably.”

I went inside.

The dining room had cleared. Grandma Celeste was in the sitting room with David and Martha. Gail was in the kitchen with Katia – I could hear them through the door, the easy sound of two people who had known each other long enough that even tense evenings ended in ordinary conversation.

I went to my study.

I sat at my desk.

I thought about Delia saying I know who she is. I thought about what she actually had the certificate with two aliases, an investigator’s report full of photographs and circumstantial evidence, and whatever Victor had told her. She had pieces. She did not have the whole picture.

But she was getting closer.

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