The Comeback: How I Destroyed the Friend Who Ruined Me Chapter 09
He looked different. Thinner. Older. His face had lines that weren’t there before. His eyes were hollow,
like someone had scooped out everything inside him. His hands didn’t stop shaking.
“Scarlett,” he said when I opened the door. Just my name. Like a prayer.
I didn’t let him in. I stood in the doorway with my arms crossed. The chain was still on.
“I know everything now,” he said. His voice was rough. “I know what she did to you. What I did to you. I
was blind. Stupid. I believed every lie she told me.”
“You ruined my life,” I said. “You humiliated me in front of millions of people. You had your men strip me
on the street. You were going to send me to Mexico.”
He flinched like I had hit him. “I know.”
“You almost had me killed.”
“I know.” His voice cracked. “And I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to make it right. Come back with me.
Let me take care of you. Let me give you everything I should have given you from the beginning. I’ll sell
the house. I’ll leave the outfit. We can go anywhere. Start over.”
I stared at him for a long moment. Then I laughed. Not because it was funny. Because it was sad. Because
he still didn’t get it.
“I’m married now, Dominic.”
His face went pale. White as a sheet. “What?”
“I married Julian. Three months ago.”
His mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water. He looked at my left hand. The ring was there.
Simple. Elegant. Nothing like the flashy diamond he would have picked.
“We’re having a baby,” I said.
I put my hand on my stomach. It was still early. I wasn’t showing much. But it was real. It was mine. It
was Julian’s.
Dominic’s eyes dropped to my stomach. He stared for a long time. When he looked back up at my face, his
eyes were wet.
“A baby,” he said. His voice was barely a whisper.
“Yes.”
“With the councilman’s son.”
“With my husband,” I said. “With the man who believed in me when no one else did. Including you.”
He stood there for a long time. His hands stopped shaking. His face went completely still. That cold look came back. The one I had seen before someone got hurt.
I braced myself. I thought about calling for Julian. But Dominic didn’t move. He didn’t try to push the door open. He didn’t reach for a weapon.
He just stood there. Broken.
“I hope he treats you better than I did,” he said finally.
Then he turned and walked away. He didn’t look back.
That was the last time I saw him.
A week later, they found his body. In his office at the warehouse. Sitting in his chair. A single gunshot
wound to the head. No note. No explanation. No witnesses.
Just a man who had lost everything and couldn’t live with what he had done.
The news called it suicide. The outfit called it a tragedy. His men called it a coward’s way out.
I called it what it was. The end.
I didn’t go to the funeral. I didn’t send flowers. I didn’t shed a single tear. I had cried enough over Dominic Marretti in my past life. I wasn’t going to waste another one.
Julian found me in the kitchen that morning. I was making coffee. The news was on in the background. They were talking about Dominic.
Julian turned off the TV. He didn’t say anything. He just took my hands and held them.
“You okay?” he asked.
I looked at him. At my husband. At the father of my child. At the man who had walked away and then
come back. Who had called his father and pulled strings and brought the police to Vincent’s door. Who
had believed me when the whole world thought I was a monster.
“I’m perfect,” I said.
And for the first time in a very long time, I meant it.
He kissed my forehead. I leaned into him. Outside the window, the sun was rising over the city. The same
city where Dominic had ruled. Where Evelyn had lied. Where Vincent had schemed.
They were all gone now. And I was still here.
I put my hand on my stomach again. The baby kicked. Just a little flutter. Just enough to remind me that life kept going.
Julian smiled. “Was that-”
“Yeah,” I said. “That was.”
He put his hand next to mine. We stood there together, waiting for the next kick.
The past was dead. The future was right here.
