Rolling onto her side, Julia winced at the twinge of pain along her ribs. The ache was dull, but she was lucky they weren’t broken.

She was so lucky for so many things.

With her eyes still closed and heart aching as the events from the night before came back to her, she reached over for Lucian, but her hand hit air and nothing else. Brows furrowing together, she opened her eyes. Daylight was mostly blocked by the thick curtains, but the slivers of light crept across the hardwood floor and the foot of the bed.

Holding the covers to her chest and careful not to pull on her tender ribs, she looked around Lucian’s bedroom. Her breath caught when she saw him.

Lucian was sitting in a chair across from the bed, half his body cast into the shadows of the room. His legs were spread wide, and from what she could see, he was slouched in the chair, one elbow propped up on the arm, his two fingers folded over his lips.

He wasn’t moving, so still that he could’ve been mistaken for a sculpture. Unease blossomed as her fingers curled around the edge of the blanket.

“Lucian?” She felt stupid for asking, but she had to. “Are you . . . you okay?”

He didn’t respond for a long, too long moment. The unease grew like a noxious weed unfurling in the pit of her stomach and spreading through her veins, threatening to choke her. “I will be,” he replied, his tone empty and flat. “Eventually.”

She wet her lip, wincing when she touched the cut along her bottom. “That was a dumb question. I know, but—”

“It’s not stupid.” There was a pause. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes. I—I think so.” Between everything that had happened, she’d been exhausted and she’d slept the kind of sleep where you weren’t even sure you dreamed. “Did I sleep long?”

“You slept as long as you needed to.”

Air hitched in her throat again. Scooting to the foot of the bed, she kept the sheet to her chest. Lucian had seen every inch of her body and then some, but she felt oddly vulnerable in the moment, so she held the sheet close. His tone—it was off. Everything about him was off.

The last thing she remembered was him holding her before she fell asleep. “Did you not sleep at all?”

“Not really.”

She placed her feet on the floor but halted, wishing he would say something else—something more. Instead, he just sat there, watching her from the shadows. Tiny knots formed in her stomach.

Julia couldn’t even begin to know what he was going through, what he was feeling. His brothers might have suspected that things with Madeline were not what they seemed, but Lucian had always defended his twin sister. She’d fallen for Maddie’s act, but for him, it was different.

Not only had he discovered that his sister was nothing but a fraud, he’d learned that she had killed their mother. The hits hadn’t stopped coming. He’d spent his life believing the man who raised them wasn’t their father and that’s why he’d been so hateful toward them. But that hadn’t been the truth.

How could Lucian even process that was beyond Julia, and it was unlikely he would ever know why his father had behaved the way he had toward him and Madeline. None of them knew where the mother’s diary was now. It was lost with all the ghosts of the past.

And he . . . he had to watch his sister die.

She knew he wasn’t going to be all right. Not for a while, and that was okay, because she would be there for him.

“Tell me,” she said, searching out his gaze through the shadows. “Tell me what I can do for you.”

There was a long stretch of silence and then he said, “I’m actually glad you brought that up. There is something you can do for me.”

“Anything,” she replied immediately.

Lucian finally moved. He rose, and she lifted her head, expected him to come to her. He didn’t. Lucian walked over to a small table butted up to the wall, beside the door that led out into his living room. He picked something up—a folder. He came back to her, holding it out.

Julia’s gaze dropped to it. “What is this?”

“It’s your future,” he replied.

Her future? Numbly, she took the folder from him. As soon as it was in her hand, he backed off, turning away and walking toward the porch doors. She placed the folder on the bed, opening it. “I don’t understand . . .”

Words slipped away, dying in the silence between them as she stared at the items before her. Two certified checks. One was the bonus Lucian had promised her. She’d never seen so many zeroes after a number in her life. The other had to be her pay, but it was so much more than what she’d been hired at.

Heart thumping, she brushed the checks aside and gasped. A first-class ticket back to Harrisburg, scheduled for tomorrow morning was staring back at her.

She blinked and then shook her head. Foolish gesture, because the items didn’t disappear. They were there, and even though her brain was screaming at her, telling her what they meant, her heart didn’t want to listen or believe.

Slowly she lifted her gaze to him. “What is this about?”

“You know what those things are.”

Julia flinched at the biting coldness in his voice. Closing the file, she gripped it in one hand as she rose. “Yes, I know what they are. I’m not stupid. What I don’t understand is why.”

His chin lowered as he lifted a hand, running it over his hair. “You also know why, Julia.”

She drew in a shaky breath as her stomach dipped in a way that made her feel like the floor was moving under her feet even though she was standing still. “You want me to leave? To go home and . . . ?”

“We threw in extra,” he said flatly, keeping his back to her. “For your pain and suffering—”

“And for me to keep my mouth shut?”

The muscles along his back stiffened. “I didn’t say that. I know you wouldn’t tell anyone what you saw here—what happened here. You’re a good person.”

Her fingers dug into the folder as pressure clamped down on her chest. “I’m a good person, but you’re paying me off—”

“I don’t want you to see it like that,” he said in that same damn voice. Emotionless. Flat. “But if you do, that is your choice.”

“My choice? Are you fucking kidding me? None of this is my choice. You are making these choices for me.”

Lucian dropped his hand to his side.

She forced herself to take a slow, even breath even though she felt like screaming. “I know you’ve been through a lot, Lucian. I know you need time to deal with this, but pushing me away—”

“I’m not pushing you away, Julia.” His hands closed into fists. “I’m ending this.”

Her mouth opened, but there were no words for what felt like an eternity. Her chest cracked. Splintered like it was a dry twig. “I—”

“Richard and Livie have your belongings packed. They’ve already been loaded up,” he said, silencing her. “You can take your time getting ready. When you are, Richard will take you to one of the hotels near the airport for the night.”

Julia stumbled back a step as she stared at him. A raw, bitter ball rose in her throat. The words came out before she could stop them, but the moment she said them, she knew they were true. “I love you, Lucian. I’ve fallen in love with you.”

His spine stiffened and pulled straight, but he said nothing.

He said not a damn thing.

Tears blurred her vision. She looked away—her gaze fell to the bed, to where they’d just made love a handful of hours ago. Now that was like a lifetime ago, and he was ending this.

Anger built beneath the barbed wire squeezing around her heart and slicing through her insides. “You can’t even look at me when you’re saying this?”

Nothing.

No response.

The anger blew, exploding like a volcano. “Look at me!” she shouted. “Look at me and say you want me to leave!”

There was silence and then Lucian slowly turned around. Those beautiful sea-green eyes met hers. “I need you to take the money and leave.”

“You don’t mean that.”

His jaw clenched. “You don’t belong here, Julia.”

As if she’d been smacked in the face, she took a step back. Her hand lifted to her mouth. Those tears dampened her lashes. Her lips trembled against her palm as the anger and sorrow ripped through her. She wanted to rage at him, but she knew if she stayed a moment longer, she would lose it. The shouting would give way to more tears.

He just broke her heart, smashed it to pieces in a way she knew she would probably never fully recover from, but he wouldn’t destroy her pride. She wasn’t going to stand here and beg, to plead with him after he said that.

Julia did what he asked.

She left him.

Lucian had no idea how much time had passed from the moment Julia walked out of the room. He hadn’t moved, but he knew it had been a while. He couldn’t erase seeing the look of betrayal on Julia’s face. If he blinked, it was there in the dark. If he opened his eyes, he saw her pale, drawn face and the bruises that stood out in stark relief. He saw the tears in her eyes.

Over the uneven pounding of his heart, the heartbreak and then the anger in her voice echoed in his head. He wanted her to be angry, because that was easier to deal with. The hurt, though? It carved right through tissue and bone.

Telling her to leave wasn’t what he wanted to do.

It was what he needed to do.

Lucian knew he’d done the right thing. It wasn’t a whiskey-fueled decision, though he’d probably drunk his weight in that shit. Even though there was a logical part of him that didn’t believe in curses, it didn’t matter in the end. He wasn’t good for Julia. Not him. Not his fucked-up family. The curse may be a crock of shit or it may be real; nonetheless, he and his family would ruin her.

All of them had blood on their hands.

And because he did love her—he was in love with her, he knew she deserved better than the mess that was his family—his legacy.

His broken shards and pieces were now poisoned.

Just like his father—fuck, that man had been his father. Bile climbed up his throat.

In a daze, Lucian found himself standing in her room. He didn’t even remember walking there, but there he was. The bed was made, and all the little parts of Julia, of what made this room a living and breathing entity, were gone.

It was just another room that would be locked up and forgotten. Another cold space where love should’ve grown, but somehow had gone barren or had become sick and twisted.

Lucian closed his eyes and stumbled, his bare back hitting the wall. His hands clapped down over his eyes, palms pressing in. His throat burned. Everything burned.

He dug his palms into his eyes, but he still saw Julia. He could still hear her, and he could still feel her warmth and softness under him. No matter how much time passed, he wouldn’t be able to shake her.

Didn’t even want to try.

“Fuck,” he rasped, dropping his hands. Kicking his head back, he looked around the room. Something at the head of the bed caught his attention. Stalking over to the stacked pillows, he cursed under his breath and snatched up the thin piece of paper. It fell apart.

It was the check.

The bonus check he’d promised to get her to stay.

Enough money to ensure that her future would be more than comfortable.

She’d ripped it up.