Chapter 5 - The Unraveling
The silence in the small room stretched so long it felt heavy enough to crush stone.
Julieta looked down at her hands—the same hands I had forced into bright yellow cleaning gloves that morning under the guise of an arbitrary punishment.
“Forgiveness isn't something you buy with a confession, Mr. Verona,” she said quietly, her voice steady and unbroken. “You humiliated me in front of my peers. You treated my dignity as if it were worth less than the marble on your floor. And worst of all... you doubted your own children's safety because an elegant woman told you what you wanted to hear.”
Each word was a scalpel, cutting away every layer of my ego until I stood completely exposed.
“You’re right,” I murmured again, unable to look away from her. “I let paranoia rule my house. I built a fortress of steel because I was terrified of getting hurt after Catherine died, and in doing so, I became the very kind of monster my father warned me against.”
Julieta looked up, her expression softening just a fraction. The raw anger in her eyes was beginning to give way to a deep, weary sorrow.
“What are you going to do about Ms. Ashford?” she asked.
“She thinks she’s marrying a billionaire kingpin who will hand her half my estate and a Lincoln Park mansion,” I said, a cold, humorless smile touching the corners of my mouth. “She’s about to discover what happens when you cross a Verona.”
Julieta stepped back, pulling her cardigan tighter around her shoulders. “Be careful, sir. People like her... they don't go quietly.”
“Let her try,” I replied, turning toward the door. I paused with my hand on the brass knob, looking back over my shoulder. “Julieta?”
“Yes, Mr. Verona?”
“Tomorrow morning, you don't wear the uniform.”
May you like
She frowned. “Sir?”
“Tomorrow morning,” I said, my voice steady and resolute, “you sit at the head of the dining room table with Noah and Gianna. Let’s see how fast high-society Chicago adjusts to the truth.”
