Chapter 206
Elena: POV
Julian's eyes stayed locked on mine even as the nurse came in to adjust his oxygen levels and check his vitals. His grip on my hand hadn't loosened—if anything, it had tightened, like he was afraid I'd disappear if he let go.
"Mr. Sterling, I need you to try and relax," the nurse said gently, noting his elevated heart rate on the monitor. "You've been through major trauma. Your body needs rest."
But he shook his head slightly, his gaze never wavering from my face. When he tried to speak again, his voice came out rough and barely audible.
"Don't... leave."
"I'm not going anywhere," I said quickly, squeezing his hand. "I promise."
Lila had climbed onto the edge of the bed, carefully avoiding the wires and tubes, and was now curled up against Julian's uninjured side like a small cat. The sight of them together—my daughter and the man who'd nearly died protecting us—made my chest ache.
The nurse finished her checks and left. The room fell into a hushed quiet, broken only by the steady beeping of monitors.
"You should rest," I said softly, watching the exhaustion pull at his features. "The doctors said you need to focus on healing."
Julian nodded reluctantly, his eyelids already growing heavy from the pain medication. "Stay," he whispered.
"I will," I promised, settling back in the uncomfortable hospital chair. "We both will."
---
Three days later, Julian was finally stable enough to sit up properly without wincing. The color had returned to his face, and though he was still weak, the dangerous pallor that had terrified me was gone. His vitals had been steady for twenty-four hours, and Dr. Martinez had even mentioned the possibility of moving him to a regular room soon.
I was reading quietly in the chair beside his bed, Lila napping curled up in the small couch by the window, when I felt Julian's eyes on me.
"You've been here every day," he said, his voice much stronger now.
"Where else would I be?" I replied, not looking up from my book.
"Elena." There was something in his tone that made me glance up. He was watching me with an expression I couldn't quite read—grateful, but also pained. "Is there anything you want to ask me? This time I promise to tell you everything. I want us to learn to trust each other more."
I set the book aside, giving him my full attention. "Why her?" The question came out barely above a whisper. "Why Victoria? What made her so special that you'd throw away everything we had?"
Julian's face went pale. Then he closed his eyes, pain flickering across his features that had nothing to do with his physical injuries.
"Because I thought I owed her my life," he said quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"When I was ten, I was kidnapped. Held for three days in some warehouse while my father negotiated with the kidnappers. I was terrified, Elena. Just a scared kid who thought he was going to die."
My breath caught. I remembered that time—the frantic search, the police cars, how Julian had been different when he came back.
"Victoria told me she was the one who saved me," Julian continued. "She said she'd seen the kidnappers take me, followed them, and called the police with the location. For years, she reminded me of it. How she'd risked her life for mine. How I owed her everything."
The room seemed to tilt around me. "Julian..."
"When she came to me after our divorce, crying about how she'd always loved me... I felt obligated. Like I owed her a chance."
"Oh my God," I whispered. "Julian, Victoria didn't save you."
He looked at me sharply, his eyes widening. "What?"
"I did." The words came out barely above a whisper. "I was the one who saw them take you from the playground. I followed them on my bike—do you remember my old red bike? I stayed hidden and watched where they took you."
Julian's face went completely white. "That's... that's impossible."
"I had to create a distraction to get away from the warehouse," I continued, my voice growing stronger as the memories flooded back. "I threw rocks at the windows to draw the kidnappers outside, then ran as fast as I could to the nearest house to call the police. But I fell—" I rolled up my jeans slightly, showing him the faint scar that was still visible on my kneecap. "I scraped my knee so badly on the pavement. I still have the scar."
Julian stared at the mark on my skin, his breathing becoming shallow. "The little girl with the scraped knee," he whispered. "I remember... when the police found me, one of the officers mentioned a brave little girl who'd gotten hurt helping them find me. But they never told me who..."
"Victoria must have overheard the adults talking about it later," I said. "She took credit for something I did."
"All these years," Julian's voice cracked. "All these fucking years, I thought I owed her everything. And it was you. It was always you."
Lila, who had woken up and been listening quietly from the couch, suddenly perked up. "Mommy, you saved Daddy?" she asked, her voice filled with wonder.
"Yes, baby," I said softly. "A long, long time ago."
"Like a superhero!" Lila exclaimed, then looked at Julian with the simple logic of a child. "Daddy, if Mommy saved you, why were you mean to her?"
Despite everything, Julian let out a choked laugh, though his eyes were bright with tears. "You're absolutely right to ask that, sweetheart. I made a very big mistake."
"She manipulated both of us," Julian said, his voice hardening with anger as he looked back at me. "She let me believe a lie for twenty years and watched me hurt you because of it."
The weight of this revelation settled over me. All those years of feeling inadequate, of wondering what Victoria had that I didn't—and it had all been built on a lie.
Julian's hand reached for mine, his fingers trembling slightly. "The truth is that you've been saving me my whole life, haven't you? When we were kids, when we got married, even now—you're still saving me from myself."
He took a shaky breath, his eyes never leaving mine. "I love you, Elena. I've loved you since before I was smart enough to know what it meant. And I'll spend the rest of my life making up for the fact that I was too much of a coward to say it when it mattered."
The words hit me like a physical blow. I'd waited so long to hear him say that—really say it, not just in the heat of passion, but as a simple, honest truth.
Lila climbed down from the couch and approached the bed, looking between us with wide eyes. "Mommy? Are you crying?"
I hadn't realized I was until she said it. I wiped at my cheeks quickly, trying to compose myself.
"I'm okay, baby."
"Are they happy tears or sad tears?" Lila asked, her small face serious with concern.
"Both," I said honestly. "Sometimes grown-ups cry when they're feeling a lot of things at once."
Lila studied me for a moment, then turned to Julian with the fierce protectiveness that always surprised me in someone so small. "Daddy, you made Mommy cry a lot before. That was very bad."
"You're absolutely right," Julian said, his voice thick with emotion. "And I'm sorry. I never want to make Mommy cry sad tears again."
She seemed to consider this, then crossed her arms in a gesture that was pure Elena. "If you want to come back to us, you have to be really, really good. Mommy deserves someone who makes her happy all the time."
Julian's expression crumbled into something between a laugh and a sob. "You're absolutely right, baby girl. What do you think? Should I get a chance to prove myself?"
Lila looked at me, her expression serious beyond her years. I knew what she was asking—she wanted my permission to hope, to let herself believe in the possibility of a family.
I took a shaky breath, then pulled Lila onto my lap, holding her close. "We'll see how he does," I said finally, meeting Julian's eyes over her head. "Winning me back isn't going to be easy."
"Mommy says you have to prove yourself!" Lila announced, bouncing slightly in my arms.
Julian's lips quirked into the faintest smile. "Does that mean you're on my side, sweetheart?"
"I'm on Mommy's side," Lila said firmly. "But if you make her really, really happy—like, bring her flowers and ice cream and never yell—then maybe I'll be on your side too."
"That's fair," Julian said softly, reaching out to brush his fingers through her hair. "I can work with those terms."