Chapter 5
Maya stood in the doorway, her bridal makeup smeared from crying, her chest heaving as she gripped the doorframe for support. The wedding dress, once a symbol of a bright new beginning, now looked like a heavy shroud dragging her down into the dirt.
Detective Vance stood up quickly, pocketing the flash drive. “Ma’am, you aren't supposed to be back here. This is a restricted area.”
“I don't care about your rules!” Maya shouted, her voice cracking with raw, unbearable pain as she pushed past the detective and stopped right in front of Julian. She looked down at the metal cuffs resting on his wrists, then up into his tired, unyielding eyes. “Why didn't you tell me? Three years? Clara was your ex, and you never said a word about her stalking you?”
Julian slowly stood up, the chair scraping loudly against the concrete floor. “I wanted to protect you, Maya. If I told you she was still lingering in the shadows, you never would have walked down that aisle with me today. You would have canceled the wedding, and she would have won.”
“So you used yourself as bait?” Maya sobbed, her hands balling into tight fists at her sides as she struck his chest weakly. “You let her poison you—or nearly poison you—just to trap her? What kind of a sick game is this?”
“It wasn't a game,” Julian said firmly, catching her wrists to stop her blows, his grip gentle but unbreakable. “It was the only way to make her stop permanently. She was never going to let us go, Maya. I knew what she was carrying in that dropper the second she walked up to the table. I had to choose between letting her hurt you or taking the risk myself.”
Vance watched the exchange silently, stepping toward the door to give them a sliver of privacy, though he kept a watchful eye. “Mr. Hayes, your wife has a right to know everything, but tampering with evidence and taking the law into your own hands complicates things significantly.”
“I didn't tamper with anything,” Julian replied, turning his head slightly toward the detective. “I preserved the chain of custody by ensuring the poison ended up where it belonged: in the body of the person who brewed it.”
Maya pulled her hands away from Julian, backing up a step as the horrific weight of his words truly settled into her mind. She looked at the man she had loved for two years, realizing she didn't know him at all.
May you like
“She’s awake,” Maya whispered, a cold shiver running down her spine as her phone buzzed violently in her pocket with a hospital alert.
Julian froze, his composure cracking for the very first time. “What did you just say?”
