He Wanted Me Hidden, I Became Untouchable Chapter 10
After Julian left that day, Dad asked to speak with me privately.
When he asked about my relationship with Julian, I told him the truth, I knew I had embarrassed the Whitmores, but Dad only poiled me into a hug and said,
“Emmy, you didn’t deserve any of this.”
But there was no injustice to mourn. I’d simply loved the wrong person.
I would forget Julian completely and start over.
I hadn’t expected Dad to ask how I felt about Grant.
Only then did I learn that everyone but me already knew Grant was in love with me. He had never hidden his feelings, yet I hadn’t noticed a thing.
Dad said, “That’s because your eyes have never lingered on Grant.”
That was why I’d never noticed.
I fell silent. Maybe he was right.
I’d never once considered that Grant and I could have any other kind of relationship.
I started avoiding Grant.
I needed time to sort out how I truly felt about him.
He noticed and stopped pushing me. Instead, he went back to being the gentle, dependable older brother I’d always known.
The truth was, I understood,
For both Grant and me, family love and romantic love had always felt like the same thing.
Half a month passed peacefully between us.
I never expected Julian to do something so reckless.
He wanted a divorce from Lauren. Lauren refused. During their argument, she lost her footing on the stairs
and fell, blacking out on impact.
By the time she reached the hospital, the baby was gone.
When Lauren woke up, she was beside herself. She grabbed Julian and screamed at him.
“Julian, you’re heartless. You’d do anything to get what you want. Do you really think Luna will forgive you just because you divorce me?”
“She won’t. She never will. You’re disgusting. You’re filthy.”
“You don’t deserve her. You don’t even fucking deserve me!”
Julian said nothing, to everyone’s surprise.
He paid Lauren every bit of compensation she was owed, then left the hospital.
Ashford stock plummeted after the scandal.
Everyone thought Julian had lost his mind. But when a paparazzo asked him about it, he only said calmly, “I wanted to live as myself for once. What’s wrong with that?”
“I’ve spent thirty years being Julian Ashford. Is it wrong for me to be myself once and find someone I love?”
There was nothing wrong with that. His mistake was that he hadn’t made that choice from the beginning.
So now, one wrong step had led to another.
When Julian came to see me again, he was wearing the casual hoodie he used to wear in Baycrest. He was as
handsome as ever, with the same strong build.
Without the suit, he looked like a college senior.
“Luna, can I be the one to chase you this time?”
He walked toward me and held out a bouquet of roses.
I didn’t take them.
“If roses aren’t your thing, I’ll bring baby’s breath next time. How about that?”
“You should like those. In Baycrest, you always loved it when I brought you flowers.”
Julian answered himself with a faint smile.
I sighed helplessly. “Julian, this is pointless.”
His smile froze.
“We can’t go back to the way we were.”
“Lauren said one thing that was true. I don’t want anything that’s been tainted.”
“So give up.”
I turned toward the house.
Julian suddenly asked in a low voice, “No matter what I do, you’re never going to forgive me, are you?”
“Not even if I gave you everything I had? Not even if I gave you my life?”
I looked back at him and nodded. “No.”
Julian didn’t try to stop me again. His eyes were full of regret and remorse.
I didn’t know when he finally left.
I only knew he was gone.
But late that night, I received a scheduled text from him.
“Luna, if I die, could you remember me for a little longer?”
At the same time, another/breaking–news alert flashed across the screen.
[Julian Ashford, Head of the Ashford Empire, Dies by Suicide on Harbor City Bridge]
