Reborn at Eighteen The Billionaire's Second Chance novel Chapter 197

Reborn at Eighteen: The Billionaire’s Second Chance

Chapter 197

Elara

Something flickered across his face–surprise, maybe, or hurt. “Why would you think that?”

“Because I don’t understand why else you’d do it. The words came faster now, pressure building behind them like water against a dam. “The money you

already spent is gone. You can’t get it back. And now you’ve pulled out publicly, which means Vane Group loses all the brand exposure, all the goodwill from supporting the arts, all the business advantages that made sponsoring the competition worthwhile in the first place. It makes no sense commercially. So unless you did it to protect Sloane’s reputation, to make sure she could win without people saying you bought her the prize, I don’t understand what you

gain from any of this.”

Julian took a step closer, and I had to resist the urge to retreat. His eyes had gone darker, more intent, in that way they did when he was trying to make me understand something he thought should be obvious. “Can’t you see who I did this for, Elara? You’ve always been so smart about everything else.”

My heart stuttered in my chest.

“You didn’t need to,” I said, and hated how my voice wavered. “I didn’t ask you to do any of this.”

“I know.” He moved closer still, close enough that I could see the fine lines of fatigue around his eyes, the shadow of stubble along his jaw that suggested he hadn’t slept well either. “I know you didn’t ask. I know you probably don’t want my help. But I couldn’t stand there and watch them tear you apart with accusations and speculation and lies about why you earned your place in that competition.”

‘Julian-

“Some things,” he continued, his voice dropping lower, more intense, “aren’t about what’s necessary or unnecessary. They’re about what’s right. About what I couldn’t live with myself for not doing.”

The sincerity in his tone hit me like a physical blow. This wasn’t the cold, calculating Julian who made business decisions with surgical precision. This wasn’t the man who’d held me at arm’s length while building a perfect life with someone else. This was something else entirely–something vulnerable and honest that I didn’t know how to process, didn’t know if I could trust.

‘You gave up millions of dollars,” I whispered, my throat tight. “You damaged your company’s reputation. You put yourself in the position of looking like you’re not confident in your own fiancée’s abilities. All of that, just to-*

“To make sure no one could use me as a weapon against you.” He said it simply, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Like sacrificing his company’s interests and his public image was a reasonable price to pay for my peace of mind. “To make sure that when you win–and you will win, Elara, your work is extraordinary–no one can claim it was because of money or influence or anything except your own talent.

The tears came before I could stop them, hot and sudden, blurring my vision. I blinked them back furiously, refusing to let them fall, but Julian had already seen. His expression shifted, something breaking open in his eyes that looked almost like pain.

“Don’t cry,” he said softly, and his hand lifted as if to touch my face before he caught himself and let it fall. Please don’t cry. I can’t–when you cry, I can’t think straight.”

“I’m not crying,” I lied, even as another tear escaped and tracked down my cheek. “I’m just–1 don’t understand you. I don’t understand any of this. You’re engaged to Sloane. You’re going to marry her, have a life with her, raise your child together. But then you do things like this, and you say things like that. and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it. I don’t know what you want from me.”

“I want you to be free, Julian said, and the naked honesty in his voice made my breath catch. “I want you to compete and create and sucered without my presence in your life being used as evidence that you don’t deserve it. I want you to be able to stand on that stage when you win and know that it’s yours.

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7:13 pm

Chapter 197

that you earned it, that no one can take it away from you.”

“Even if that means cutting yourself out of the picture entirely,” I said, understanding dawning with a strange, aching clarity. “Even if that means making it

look like you don’t care about the competition or the outcome or-”

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