The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 357

Julian continued, "Lavinia didn't use you to get close to our family. She has Gilmore blood running through her veins. Your marriage is over, and she has absolutely zero ties to the Harpers anymore. But her bloodline is undeniable."

Garnett stood perfectly still, every ounce of emotion drained from his face.

Lavinia stepped off the platform and accepted the coat the designer handed her. Without even glancing at Garnett, she looked at Julian. "Julian, I really like this one. Let's go with this."

Julian nodded and gave the designer a brief signal. The designer tactfully slipped out of the room, shutting the door behind her.

Julian walked over to Garnett and lowered his voice. "Garnett, whatever happened between you and Lavinia is in the past. Out of respect for the history between our families, I'm going to pretend you didn't just say all of that. But from this second forward, I expect you to show my cousin some respect."

"I didn't know. I just..." Garnett's words choked in his throat.

How could Lavinia be his grandmother's biological granddaughter? Something this monumental, and not a single person had told him?

The realization finally hit Garnett. He had been entirely excised from her world. He would never be kept in the loop about her life ever again.

A lump of bitter regret lodged in his throat—too thick to swallow, too painful to spit out.

"Lavinia, I'm sorry. I really didn't know. I thought..."

"You thought I was just social climbing again," Lavinia cut him off, her voice glacial.

"That's not what I meant—"

Ignoring him completely, Lavinia turned to Julian. "Julian, let me change out of this, and we can leave." She turned her back and walked into the dressing room.

Garnett was left standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. Julian sat back down gracefully on the sofa, crossing his long legs, watching Garnett from a comfortable distance.

Garnett slowly walked over and sat down beside him. He asked quietly, "How did this happen?"

Julian remained silent for a moment, but eventually gave Garnett the entire backstory.

Garnett sat in silence for a very long time.

For a brief second, he wondered if his grandmother had known Lavinia's true identity all along and had deliberately set them up on that blind date years ago.

On the drive home, Julian glanced at Lavinia. "I checked with our lawyers about Sigrid Sloan. It's going to be difficult to pin actual theft charges on her."

He paused. "She's trying to take her mother to the States, but as long as I don't drop the civil suit, her passport is flagged. She can't leave the country. I've thought about it carefully—as long as she agrees to leave and never come back, the Gilmores will drop it and let her go."

"Whatever you think is best, Julian," Lavinia said.

Julian smiled softly.

"By the way, Rowena is moving back. She just graduated from LSE and is getting engaged to her childhood sweetheart soon. Our family is practically drowning in good news lately," Julian said warmly.

Rowena Gilmore was the daughter of the Marina Island branch. She had spent the last few years studying in London and was now starting from the ground up at Gilmore Lumina Holdings.

Lavinia asked, "Is Harrison Fawcett a few years older than Rowena?"

"Three years. He's already taken over his family's business, and their company is aggressively expanding into Blossom City. Once Rowena is engaged, I'm putting her in charge of our regional branch here. You'll have to show her the ropes."

Lavinia laughed, sticking her tongue out playfully. "Julian, I barely just got into this industry, and I'm totally self-taught. Rowena has a degree from LSE and grew up shadowing you and Great-uncle Geoffrey. If anything, she needs to be the one showing me the ropes."