My Accidental Billionaire Husband (Katia and Julian) novel Chapter 317

The Flight of the Wolf

~Katia~

I watched Jude’s face change right in front of me. The moment Hailey demanded the divorce and the folder with the marriage certificate sat open on the table, something inside him broke. His eyes darted around the room like he was looking for an escape route. I knew what was coming before he even

moved.

“I can’t do this,” he said. His voice sounded rough and shaky. “I won’t stand here while you all tear me

apart.”

David took a step forward from where he had been standing near the bar cart. “Jude, sit down. We are

not finished.”

But Jude did not listen. He turned fast toward the hallway that led to the elevator. His shoulder hit the edge of a chair and sent it scraping loudly across the floor. I started to move, but Sam was quicker. She already had her phone out and was speaking into it. Jude broke into a run.

I did not chase him. I stayed where I was near the table and said, “Let him run. He won’t get far.”

His footsteps echoed down the private hall. Then I heard the elevator ding. The doors opened and closed. He was gone.

The room stayed completely quiet for a long time. Martha sank into the nearest chair. Her hand shook as she pressed it against her forehead. “He just ran,” she said. “After everything he told us. After all those dinners at our house. He ran like he had something to hide.”

Hailey stood with her arms crossed. She looked toward the empty hallway with pure disgust on her face “That is the man I married,” she said. “He always runs when things get difficult. I should have known years ago.”

I glanced at Delia. She stayed near the doorway, her arms wrapped around herself. Her eyes looked red She did not say anything. She just stared at the spot where Jude had been.

Julian had not moved from his place near the window the whole evening. He watched the halfway now with a calm face. When he spoke, his voice stayed low “He made his choice. Running only makes clearer what he really is.

They logged the

Sam finished her call and lowered her phone “Security downstairs has his description exact time he left the building and which way he went I told them to watch but not to stop pull the camera footage later if we need it

We can

David rubbed a hand over his face He looked tired “I let that man into my home shook his hand I listened to him talk about family and second chances Now he runs out like this

I walked over to the table and closed the folder with the papers I did not sit down. “He ran because he had nothing left to say The certificate is real Hailey is real. His whole story fell apart the second we

showed it to him

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Hailey stepped closer to the table. She picked up the copy of the registry page and looked at it for a moment before she put it back down. “I spent months thinking he was busy with work. Sponsorship deals and investor meetings. Turns out he was here pretending to be married to someone else. I want that divorce filed as soon as possible. I do not care what it costs. I just want my name away from his.”

“You will have it,” I said. “Sam can start the paperwork tonight.”

Sam nodded. “I already have a lawyer ready who handles cases like this across countries. We can move quickly.”

Martha lifted her head. Her voice sounded weak. “What do we do now? He is gone. But the things he said and the things Delia admitted to. I do not know how to deal with any of this.”

Delia flinched when she heard her name. She tightened her arms around herself but stayed quiet.

I looked straight at my sister. “You gave him the footage, Delia. You handed a man you barely knew something that could hurt me. You did it because you wanted me to suffer. Say it. Own what you did.”

Delia swallowed hard. “I was angry. I felt like you had everything. Julian. Attention from the company. Even when things went bad, you came out fine. I thought if he cleared your name, it would make me feel better. I did not think he would use it the way he did.”

“You did not think,” I said. “That seems to be the problem tonight.”

David stepped between us. “Enough. Both of you. This family has taken enough tonight. Jude ran because he is guilty. We all saw it. Now we need to decide what comes next instead of fighting each

other.”

Julian moved away from the window and came to stand beside me. He touched my arm once “Jude is finished here. The real question is who paid him to come in the first place.”

I nodded. “The person on the phone. The one Jude called after you two left the lounge We need to find out who that is.”

Hailey looked between all of us. “I don’t know anything since I was in London But whoever it was, they paid enough money to keep him here for months. That is serious money

Sarn checked her tablet. “I have people looking at flight records and bank transfers already We will start with any big payments into his accounts in the last six months It might take a few. answers”

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It’s the lack of food

Katia’s POV

“A few days is too long,” I said, the words heavy as they left my mouth.

I turned away from the table, but a sudden tightness gripped the skin across my forehead. A sharp, deep throb pulsed right behind my eyes, making the edges of the room dim for a split second. My stomach

gave an uncomfortable twist, a hollow, sour sensation that made me freeze.

I clamped my teeth together and forced myself to take a slow breath through my nose, pinning my arms down so no one would see the slight tremor in my fingers. I told myself it was just the lack of sleep and the fact that I had been surviving on black coffee for days. My body was simply reacting to the fallout of

the confrontation.

Sam looked up from her screen, her expression turning serious as she caught the edge of my tone. “I can press the forensic team to run a priority scan on his local accounts. If Jude tries to move money to an offshore entity tonight, we might catch the routing destination before the transfer clears.”

“Do it tonight,” David muttered, his hand coming down heavily on Martha’s shoulder. He looked completely worn out, the lines around his eyes deeper than they had been when the evening started. ” Martha, we are leaving. Hailey, come with us to the house. Jude’s things are still over at the Whitmore Manhattan presidential suite, and I want our personal security team sent there immediately while you decide how to handle your next steps. You shouldn’t have to navigate this wreckage alone in a hotel

room.”

Hailey straightened her spine, her expression hardening into something cold and operational. “Thank you, David. I want his laptop and any travel logs he left behind in that suite secured. If he has paperwork hidden there, it belongs to my legal team now.”

“I’ll have our security lock down the suite the moment we arrive at the estate,” David said. He turned his gaze toward me, his brow furrowing slightly as he studied my face. “Katia, you look completely drained. Go to sleep. We will handle the official corporate statement regarding the Windsor project at the

downtown office tomorrow morning at ten.”

“I’ll be there,” I replied, keeping my voice level.

Delia finally shifted her weight from the doorway, her high heels clicking loudly against the hardwood floor as she stepped into the center of the room She looked small, her face pale and her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and lingering bitterness She looked at Julian, waiting for him to step forward, wasting for him to take his place at her side as her husband

But Julian did not move He stood night beside me, his shoulder almost touching mine, his presence solid and heavy in the middle of the room. He didn’t look at Delia His gaze remained fixed on the open doorway where Jude had vanished

“Julian?” Delia’s voice trembled, a desperate note cutting through her usual sharp exterior “Are you

coming?

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Julian turned his head slowly, his eyes dark and completely unreadable as he looked at her. “No,” he said his voice dropping into a low, flat register. “Go with your parents, Delia. I am staying here to review the corporate security breach with Sam and Katia. The fact that Jude had access to our internal project files means our entire server infrastructure is compromised. I am not leaving until we trace the origin point

Delia flinched as if he had struck her. Her lips parted to argue, but she looked at David’s tight expression and Martha’s silent weeping, and she stopped herself. She wrapped her arms even tighter around her chest, gave me one final, venomous look, and turned on her heel.

My father guided Martha and Hailey out first, with Delia following behind them like a ghost. The heavy wooden door of the penthouse clicked shut, the sound echoing through the wide hallway, signaling the absolute end of the dinner party.

The penthouse grew entirely quiet. The massive glass windows reflecting the distant, sprawling lights of the city skyline, casting long shadows across the empty dining table and the half-eaten food.

Sam slid her tablet into her leather portfolio and stepped toward the foyer. “I’ll run the financial tracking from my office downstairs,” she said, her eyes shifting between Julian and me for a brief second. “If the offshore data updates before dawn, I’ll send a secure notification to your personal file.”

“Thank you, Sam,” I said.

Once the front door opened and closed a second time, leaving the two of us completely alone, my posture crumbled. The tight grip I had kept on my emotions broke all at once. I walked toward the kitchen island, needing a glass of water to clear the bitter taste from my throat, but the room suddenly tilted. The dark marble floor seemed to rise toward me, and my knees went weak. I reached out, my palms slamming against the edge of the stone counter to keep myself upright.

A shadow fell over the counter before I could even draw a breath.

Julian didn’t ask if I was fine. He didn’t offer a useless phrase. He stepped directly into my space, his large hand coming down over mine where I was gripping the stone, his warm fingers anchoring my cold skin against the marble.

“They’re gone, Katia,” he said, his voice a low, gravelly vibration in the silence of the room “You can stop forcing yourself to stand.”

I didn’t pull my hand away. I couldn’t. I just leaned my weight against the counter my eyes closed as fought the gray edges blurring my vision. “I’m not forcing anything I’m just tired

“You’re shaking,” he noted, his gaze tracking the rapid pulse jumping in my throat He reached past me, poured a glass of cold water from the dispenser, and set it near my hand Donk it Then you arching to tell me what is really happening with you”

“I told you, it’s the lack of food,” I muttered, my voice tight as I forced myself to look up at him

The proximity was dangerous He was too close, his dark eyes analyzing every line of exhaustion on my face. For months, we had kept our distance in public, hiding the memory of what had happened between us behind corporate meetings and formal greetings But tonight, the boundaries were entirely gone.

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