JULIAN'S POV
The gunshot echoed through the lake house like thunder.
I felt the bullet whip past my ear—so close the heat of it burned my skin.
Then I crashed into Robert Chen, driving him backward. His gun clattered across the floor.
"Avery, run!" I shouted, my hands around Robert's throat. "Get out now!"
But she didn't run. She grabbed the gun.
"Stop!" Avery's voice shook but her hands were steady, pointing Robert's own weapon at him. "Stop or I'll shoot."
Robert laughed beneath me, even with my hands crushing his windpipe. "You won't. Sweet little Avery, who cried when her goldfish died. You don't have it in you."
"Try me," she said coldly.
For a moment, I saw a stranger in her eyes. Someone harder. Braver. Someone who'd been pushed too far.
Pride and terror flooded through me in equal measure.
I loosened my grip on Robert's throat just enough for him to breathe. "Why? Why come after us like this? Diane left you years ago."
"Because you destroyed me!" Robert spat blood. "You used your connections to blacklist me. My PI business dried up. Clients disappeared. All because I loved Diane and you wanted her for yourself."
"I protected her from your obsession. You were stalking her."
"I was fighting for her! And you stole her. Married her. Played happy family with her daughter while I lost everything." His eyes flicked to Avery. "But then I started watching. And I realized you didn't want Diane at all. You wanted her."
The truth hung in the air like poison.
"So I waited," Robert continued. "Watched you pretend to be the perfect stepfather while you stared at her like a starving man. Watched you fight it for six years. And I knew eventually, you'd break. Everyone breaks."
"You're insane," I said.
"I'm patient. And now I have everything I need to destroy you both. Pay me, or I send it all to Diane. To your law firm. To the media. Your career ends. Avery becomes the girl who seduced her stepfather. Diane gets a massive divorce settlement. And I get to watch you burn."
My hands tightened on his throat. It would be so easy. One squeeze and he'd stop breathing. Stop threatening us. Stop existing.
"Julian, don't." Avery's voice cut through my rage. "He's not worth it."
She was right. But God, I wanted to.
I let go and stood, pulling out my phone. "I'm calling the police. Breaking and entering. Attempted murder. Blackmail. You're done, Robert."
"Am I?" He sat up slowly, wiping blood from his mouth. "By the time police arrive, I'll have sent every photo, every video, every piece of evidence to fifty different email addresses. Automatic upload if I don't stop it in ten minutes. You call the cops, and your life ends before they even get here."
My finger hovered over 911.
"He's bluffing," Avery said.
"Try me," Robert echoed her earlier words. "Ten minutes. Then the world knows everything."
I looked at Avery. At this woman I loved more than my reputation, my career, my life.
We had a choice: save ourselves, or save our secret.
"Let it go," I said quietly.
Robert's eyes widened. "What?"
"Send the files. All of them. I don't care anymore." I moved to Avery's side, taking her hand. "You want to destroy us? Fine. But we're not giving you a dime. We're not hiding anymore. Whatever happens, we'll face it together."
"You're bluffing."
"I'm done bluffing." I pulled Avery close. "My marriage is over—my wife's having an affair in Milan. Avery's an adult. We haven't done anything illegal. Inappropriate? Yes. Scandalous? Absolutely. But we're both free to make our own choices."
Robert stared at us, his plan crumbling. "You'd really throw everything away? For her?"
"Without hesitation."
"They'll call you a predator. A monster."
"Then I'm a monster who's finally being honest." I looked at Avery. "We run. Leave Vancouver. Start over somewhere new. Change our names if we have to. But I'm done living a lie."
Tears streamed down Avery's face. "Julian—"
"Unless you don't want that." I cupped her face, ignoring Robert completely. "If this is too much. If you want your old life back. I'll understand. I'll pay him, bury everything, and we'll pretend this never happened."
"I don't want to pretend anymore," she whispered.
"Then we don't."
Robert scrambled to his feet, furious. "You think running will work? I'll find you. I'll—"
"You'll go to prison for attempted murder," a new voice said from the doorway.
We all turned.
Marcus stood there, phone in hand, recording. "Got every word. Breaking and entering. Blackmail. Threatening to kill them." He lowered the phone. "Police are two minutes out. I called them before I came in."
Relief and confusion flooded through me. "Marcus? I thought—"
"You thought I abandoned you?" He shook his head. "I was angry. Confused. But you're my best friend, Julian. When you hung up on me, I tracked your phone. Got here just in time to hear this psycho's entire confession."
Robert lunged for the door. Marcus clotheslined him easily.
"Where you going? Party's just starting."
Sirens wailed in the distance, getting closer.
Robert struggled but Marcus held him down. "It's over, Chen. You lost."
Police cars screamed into the driveway. Officers poured in. Robert was cuffed and dragged away, screaming threats the whole time.
A detective took our statements. Marcus showed them his recording. Open and shut case.
When they finally left, it was nearly dawn. The three of us sat in the destroyed living room—door broken, bullet hole in the wall, blood on the floor.
"Thank you," I said to Marcus. "For coming. For helping."
"Don't thank me yet." Marcus looked between us. "I saved you from Robert. But Julian... the photos he sent to your law firm? Those are still real. The partners still have questions. And Diane's going to find out eventually."
The reality we'd been ignoring crashed back in.
"What do we do?" Avery asked quietly.
Marcus sighed. "You have two choices. Come back to Vancouver, face the scandal, and try to salvage what you can. Julian might lose his partnership. You'll both be gossip fodder for months. But eventually, it'll die down."
"Or?" I asked.
"Or you run. Like you said. Disappear before the story breaks. I can give you maybe forty-eight hours before the firm goes public."
Forty-eight hours to decide our entire future.
I looked at Avery. She looked back at me.
"We need to talk," she said. "Alone."
Marcus nodded and stepped outside.
Avery and I stood in the wreckage of the lake house—literal and metaphorical.
"If we run, you lose everything," she said. "Your career. Your reputation. Your whole life."
"I lose everything if we stay too. At least if we run, I have you."
"For how long? A year? Five years? Until you resent me for what you gave up?"
"I could never—"
"You don't know that." Her voice broke. "Julian, I love you. But I can't let you destroy yourself for me. If we do this, we do it right. Face the consequences. Let people judge us. But don't run. Don't hide like we're ashamed."
"You want to stay? Face the scandal?"
"I want us to be together without constantly looking over our shoulders." She took my hands. "Your marriage is over. I'm an adult. We didn't plan to fall in love, but we did. Let's own it."
My brave, fierce Avery. How had I ever thought I could resist her?
"Okay," I said. "We stay. We face it."
She smiled through tears. "Together."
"Together."
I kissed her as dawn broke through the windows—a kiss that tasted like freedom and terrifying new beginnings.
Marcus knocked. "Guys? We have a problem."
We broke apart. "What now?"
He held up his phone. "Diane. She's on a flight home. Lands in six hours. Someone sent her the photos."
My stomach dropped. "Robert?"
"Automated before his arrest, probably." Marcus looked grim. "She knows everything. And she's coming home to destroy you both."