Reborn at Eighteen The Billionaire's Second Chance novel Chapter 255

Chapter 255

Elara

The question hung in the air between us, heavy with unspoken implications, and I felt something inside me shift and settle, like a key finally turning in a lock I’d been trying to force open for three years. This was it the moment I’d been both dreading and moving toward since the day I’d woken up in that bedroom with the impossible weight of two lifetimes pressing down on my chest.

I took a deep breath, steadying myself, then walked to his side. “Julian,” I said quietly, my voice remarkably calm despite the way my hands were trembling, I have something to tell you. About Lily. About me. About… us.”

He turned then, and the expression on his face was almost painful to witness–hope and fear warring so openly in his eyes that I had to look away for a moment, gathering my courage. His shoulders sagged slightly, whether from exhaustion or the lingering pain of his injuries I couldn’t tell, but he remained standing straight, waiting.

“I’m listening,” he said, and there was something raw in those two words, a vulnerability I’d rarely heard from him.

I glanced around the exhibition space. Gallery staff were beginning to dismantle displays, a few stragglers still photographed my abandoned trophy on the stage, and the livestream cameras had finally powered down. Too many eyes, too many potential interruptions for what I needed to say.

“This isn’t the right place,‘ I said, meeting his gaze again. “Can we go somewhere private? Somewhere we won’t be disturbed?”

Julian nodded immediately, no questions, no hesitation. “My car. No one will bother us there.” He gestured toward the exit, and I fell into step beside him. acutely aware of the careful distance we maintained even as we moved through the thinning crowd together.

The parking garage was nearly empty, our footsteps echoing off concrete as we made our way to where the Maserati sat gleaming under fluorescent lights. Julian opened the passenger door for me with that automatic courtesy that had once made me feel cherished, and I slid into the leather seat, the families scent of expensive cologne and coffee wrapping around me.

He circled to the driver’s side and settled behind the wheel, and for a long moment we just sat there in silence, the engine off, the world beyond the timber windows reduced to distant shapes and muted sounds.

My fingers twisted together in my lap, betraying the nervousness I was trying so hard to keep from my voice. I’d made my decision- would tell m everything, regardless of whether he believed me. This was the root of all my resistance, the wall I’d built between us, and if there was as he doing forward, he needed to understand why I’d spent months pushing him away.

1 fixed my eyes on the dashboard, unable to look at him yet. If I told you that I’ve lived anothek life before this one would you beer me?

The silence that followed felt impossibly long. Then Julian’s voice, careful and measured: You mean rebirth? Actually rebut, metaphoricall

I nodded slowly, still not looking at him. “Yes. In that life, my relationship with you was… very differeal. Very wrong

I heard his sharp intake of breath, saw his hands tighten on the steering wheel in my peripheral vision, but if my love bere kor

nerve.

“The night we attended the Kennedy family dinner, someone drugged me. I still dont us who – tunt aut but that night, you and allowed hard, finally turning to meet his eyes. “We slept together

Julian’s pupils dilated, his knuckles going white where he gripped the wheel. His opened his mouth, closed it again, sewed to struggle with words belove managing a strangled, “What happened after?

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