The Rose He Showed Off Is Putting Down Roots in a Garden of Her Own novel Chapter 13

In the mirror, her body was covered in hickeys. The sight stung her eyes.

Elara closed her eyes in discomfort, feeling a wave of self-loathing.

But she was satisfied.

Usually, Elara wore a silk robe to bed, but not tonight.

She tossed the robe onto the velvet ottoman at the foot of the bed, leaving on nothing but her panties.

The room was climate-controlled, so she applied her body lotion bare-skinned, leaving every single mark on full display.

Julian's verbal abuse wasn't satisfying him anymore. He stepped forward, reaching out to grab her, but Elara sidestepped him. "If you lay another hand on me, I'm walking right out that door."

"You shameless slut!"

"If you don't care about your dignity, I still care about mine."

Elara ignored him. After finishing her face, she meticulously rubbed lotion into her skin.

Thanks to years of expensive treatments, Elara's skin was incredibly soft, meaning the bruises would take much longer to fade than on an average person.

Seeing them pushed Julian into another blinding fit of rage.

"You walk around acting so high and mighty!"

"But underneath it all, you're just a cheap whore!"

The night deepened.

Julian was too furious to sleep, continuously hurling insults.

Elara ignored him and lay down to sleep.

Seeing her bulletproof indifference only trapped Julian's rage inside him, making him even more frustrated.

Elara lay with her back to him. Let him curse. Let him spit out the most venomous words he could find, shredding whatever lingering warmth remained from their youth.

A story that began the way theirs did only made sense if it ended in mutual infidelity.

It spared her the regret, and it spared him, too.

It was just a shame that such a bitter ending hardly did justice to the pure love they once shared.

-

The very next night, Julian delivered his retaliation.

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