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Chapter 4

Penulis: Peachy Peach
I stared at Vivian and shouted.

"Have you lost your mind? You know what Roxanne did to me--"

Before I could finish, Vivian clamped a hand around my wrist so tightly that the bones ached.

"Be good. She's my friend now. She won't hurt you again. It's only one night."

"No--"

Vivian struck me, and darkness swallowed everything.

When consciousness returned, I was pinned to a cold floor. My clothing had already been torn away.

"Kneel properly. You used to obey so well. Why have you become rebellious with age?"

Roxanne slapped me again and again until my lip split. She was stronger than I remembered.

"Still stubborn. That's what makes breaking you interesting."

"Don't touch me! Aren't you afraid Vivian will kill you? I'm her husband!"

Roxanne laughed until she bent at the waist.

"Everything I do to you tonight has Vivian's permission. Call her if you don't believe me. If she tells me to send you home, I won't argue."

She tossed the phone onto my bare chest. The cold glass made me shudder.

My fingers missed the number several times. The moment I finally heard Vivian's voice, I broke down.

"Vivian, please come save me. Roxanne is--"

Whatever Vivian felt for Julian, the years she had loved me couldn't all have been false. She couldn't knowingly allow Roxanne to do this.

Silence held the other end of the call for several seconds.

"Adrian, stop performing. Roxanne invited you to dinner and asked you to stay the night. I'll collect you in the morning." The call ended.

Then the assault began, and pain turned my body numb.

I stared at the ceiling while tears slid silently into my hair.

Tomorrow, I'd take Eli and leave. I'd leave Vivian forever.

I woke the next morning beneath a burst of white light.

Camera flashes fired at my exposed body.

I screamed and searched for anything that could cover me, but the room had been stripped bare.

The headlines appeared almost immediately.

I was presented as the adulterer.

[Heiress's Husband Framed His Brother--His "Abuse Claims" Were Jealous Lies About CEO Roxanne Pierce!]

Roxanne posted: [My heart belongs to Julian. Even if someone crawled naked into my bed, I wouldn't look twice.]

Vivian, who had never maintained a public account, opened one and posted an old video.

[I apologize that my husband's private obsession consumed public attention. Julian is one of the finest people I know. Please don't be manipulated by those acting in bad faith.]

The video showed the first time I had fought back against Julian while Vivian protected me.

Because Vivian cut away everything that came before, I appeared to be the aggressor.

Julian's furious reaction was transformed into something viewers called charming.

[That husband is disgusting. The affair is obvious. Vivian Cross should make sure he leaves the marriage with nothing.]

[Two powerful women defending the same beautiful man? I can't stop watching.]

[And honestly, even if Julian really was a bully, would that not make him even more exciting?]

The beginning of that recording contained one of the worst memories of my life.

I had once begged Vivian to delete it. She had promised, "It's evidence of Julian's crimes. One day I'll use it to destroy him."
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  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 10

    Terror filled Julian's eyes. He stumbled backward and fell.The knife came down.It missed Julian and plunged into Roxanne's chest as she rushed between them."Julian, are you hurt?"Blood spread rapidly across her blouse.Even as she died, her expression remained arrogant."I miss the years when we hurt people together. You and I were always made for each other."She coughed blood through a smile."Julian...did you ever love me?"Julian couldn't answer the woman bleeding before him.He looked at the person I had become and saw only terror.I now regarded him exactly as he had once regarded me.Returning one blow for one blow wasn't justice.After one blow, I wanted him to feel ten.Julian understood that I'd never spare him.He fled screaming to the Boyle estate and begged Victor to protect him.Victor hated him now. Without Julian, my mother might still have been alive."Get out. Never appear before me again."Julian went white. He couldn't understand why the father

  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 9

    A coordinated boycott targeted Crosswell Holdings, Boyle Industries, and Pierce Capital. Their share prices fell at a terrifying speed.My grandfather's people had quietly accelerated every part of it.They had even arranged for Julian and Roxanne's drinks to be tampered with that night so Vivian would discover them together.They amplified the evidence online and attacked the three companies through the market.I had no patience left. I wanted to see them destroyed as quickly as possible."Adrian, don't keep punishing yourself because of them."The hatred inside me softened when I saw my white-haired grandfather still worrying about me.He had lost his wife when he was young and his daughter in middle age. How could I let him lose his only remaining family member too?Grandpa began teaching me finance and corporate operations.With the patience of someone teaching a child to tie his shoes, he gave me all his time and knowledge.The pain and hatred in me became a blade for th

  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 8

    Julian's eyes darted. "Vivian, what are you talking about? Roxanne can't be pregnant."Vivian knew him too well.He was terrified."Then we'll test it now.""Now? How?"Roxanne received her answer when Vivian's guards restrained them and a corrupt private physician performed an illegal procedure to obtain fetal tissue while taking a surgical sample from Julian.Neither was given anesthesia. Julian's screams filled the villa."Vivian, are you even human? Come after me, not Julian!"Roxanne bled heavily while the guards held her against the bed."Ms. Cross, the fetal DNA matches Julian Boyle." The physician handed Vivian the report."I destroyed my son and drove Adrian away for this man." Vivian staggered backward."Vivian, I'll make you pay. You killed my child!"Roxanne's threat sharpened Vivian's eyes."You're in no position to threaten me. No one has ever humiliated me like this."Roxanne smiled with savage delight."This isn't the only betrayal you have suffered."Th

  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 7

    The private room on the top floor of Crosswell Medical Center was empty."My son was critically injured. How could you allow my husband to take him away? If anything happens to him, every one of you is finished."The medical director trembled, unable to understand her. "But Ms. Cross...young Eli has already been cremated."Vivian had opened my message thread to demand answers. The words made her hand jerk, and the phone struck the floor.The impact seemed to shatter the last barrier in her mind.The director worked for her. He wouldn't lie.Panic finally consumed Vivian. She called Adrian again and again, but every attempt went to voicemail.[Adrian, where are you? Let me come get you.][I was wrong. I failed Eli. Please let me say goodbye to our son.]She left the messages in a shaking voice. No answer came.She didn't sleep that night.She held Eli's memorial photograph and replayed the recording over and over.Then she struck herself across the face, again and again."V

  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 6

    When Vivian opened the heavy box, she imagined the sound of flesh tearing apart.A formal cremation certificate lay inside.The name printed on it belonged to her son.Vivian stopped breathing. Her chest heaved as though it might burst.She gripped the document until her knuckles whitened, then forced herself to remain calm."This isn't real. Adrian forged it to punish me and frighten me. That has to be what happened."Once she could breathe again, Vivian reached for her phone to confront Adrian. Then she noticed a small video recorder inside the box.Frowning, she pressed play.The recording showed Julian beating Eli while the boy cried, "Mom, help me!"Julian smiled and struck harder each time.Every frame pinned Vivian in place. Her eyes turned red.She hurled the recorder to the floor, seized Julian while he was pitching himself to a film producer, and dragged him into a corner despite his struggles."You told me Eli fell and was struck by a vehicle. What's this?"Juli

  • The Wind We Once Held   Chapter 5

    Instead, I was the one she destroyed.I returned to the hospital like a ghost."Where is my son?"Eli was nowhere in the room or the corridor. I grabbed a passing nurse in panic.The nurse's blank expression triggered a sudden thought.At Hawthorn Field, the private soccer ground Vivian had built for Eli, my son lay beside the goal. Blood from his wrist had soaked into the grass.My legs collapsed beneath me.People said an heir should learn golf or riding, but Eli had only ever loved soccer.His mother had indulged that love, insisting that her son didn't need to be trapped by other people's expectations. She had built this expensive field for him.Every other time I had seen him there, he had been running. This was the first time he had been so still.I coughed up blood, and pain seemed to tear through every organ.A folded note was clenched in Eli's hand. I opened it with shaking fingers."Dad, I saw the news. I know you were hurt because you were protecting me."Yester

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