Chapter 37 Finding Comfort In Pain
Seraphina’s chest heaved as she absorbed Julian’s words. Her mind refused to settle. Living in his room? That’s bad enough, she thought, but her son…? How on earth did he get to him?
“Julian,” she started, voice trembling yet audible, “being in your room is currently the least of my worries. My son- he was supposed to be in Seattle with his…with his—where is his nanny? How did you even get to him?!”
Julian didn’t answer. Instead, he moved across the room, pacing silently. The low echo of his boots against the polished floor seemed louder than the chaos in her heart.
“I’m talking to you! You have my son in your house! He shouldn’t even be here! Where—” she stopped, words faltering as she tried to make sense of the impossible.
Finally, Julian turned toward her, his expression piercing, eyes blazing like molten steel. He closed the distance between them, each step controlled. Then he spoke in a kind of low voice carrying both accusation and power.
“Why did you lie to him?”
Seraphina stiffened. “Lied to him about?”
“You told him I am not his father.” That made her pulse jump, blood rushing in her ears. Swallowing hard, her voice barely above a whisper, she admitted, “Because…you’re not his father.”
The words barely left her lips before Julian snapped, the calm edge of him cracking into raw fire. “Enough with the drama!”
She shook, terror and defiance colliding in her chest. Her fingers curled into fists, trembling against the tension in the room. She stepped closer, voice quivering but fierce. “And if I told him you were his father… what then? What would you do, Julian? Would you be able to protect him? Protect him from your everyday dangerous life? From the known and unknown enemies you’ve gathered with the kind of work you are into? Will you!?”
Julian said nothing. His eyes, dark and cold, simply held hers. And in that silence, she got more frustrated.
She let out a shaky laugh of disbelief, the kind that breaks into desperation. “I thought as much,” she said, voice barely controlled. “I have to return him to his Maris.”
The name barely left her lips before Julian’s tone shifted, chillingly calm. “Maris is dead.”
The words hit her like a physical blow. Color drained from her face. Her knees almost buckled, and she instinctively grabbed his chest, shouting, shoving, the sound of fury and grief tearing through her.
“You—you demonic monster! Did you kill her? Did you take Phoenix from her by killing her?!”
Julian suddenly grabbed her hands that she was hitting him with, holding them together with an iron grip as he enclosed her. He pinned her trembling hands against the wall. His face hovered close to hers, mean and unrelenting. “Calm your hot bones down, Sera,” he said, voice low, deadly. “Maris didn’t die because of me. She tried to sell Phoenix. She was betrayed by the people she thought she could trust—the ones she had a deal with. They killed her.”
“Liar!” Seraphina screamed, disbelief warping into rage.
Julian released her hands just enough to draw his phone from his pocket. He didn’t speak. Instead, he showed her a video. In it, Maris, smiling and looking cheerful, was waiting to hand over a child that wasn’t Phoenix. Masked men arrived and collected the child from her and after they left, she looked side ways as if wanting to be sure no one was watching.
She then crossed and disappeared like she hadn’t just sold a kid.
Seraphina froze. She almost couldn’t believe her eyes. “This…this had to be doctored.”
“This,” Julian said quietly, “is one of the children Maris had secretly sold in the past.”
His hand moved again, flipping to a passport with her picture and real name. “This is her real name.Tanya Jeans. Maris is the fake name she uses for her fake world. You were one of her fake worlds, Phine.”
Seraphina couldn’t think straight. She wanted to believe it was a lie so bad, but she knew what she saw. That didn’t appear like a lie.
She staggered back, collapsing onto the floor in broken sobs. Her hands clutched her face as she cried, her grief raw and unfiltered. Julian watched silently, the weight of her pain pressing into him, feeling every shiver and tear that she let out.
His cold heart tugged against his will. He almost hated it.
But slowly, he approached her position on the floor. His large hands settled on her shoulders, pulling her to his chest. He held her, steady and unflinching, as she cried and shook, the grief of betrayal and loss pouring out. She allowed herself to melt into his hold because apart from that, helplessness was all she felt.
An hour later, they lay on his massive bed. Seraphina pressed against him, her tears spent, chest rising and falling against his. Julian’s arms encircled her, holding her closer than before, as if he could shield her from every threat in the world.
She whispered, voice soft and trembling, “I… I formed a bond with Maris. I… I trusted her. I didn’t know she had such… intentions.”
Julian’s thumb traced circles along her arm. “That’s why you didn’t see the truth,” he murmured. “Because it was hidden in plain sight.”
Seraphina’s gaze found his, still glistening with remnants of sorrow. “I can’t believe… my son was in danger… and I was blaming you the whole time. You… you were helping me.”
“I was,” Julian said, voice low and steady. “And I’ll keep him safe. Always.”
Her fingers brushed his chest as she whispered, voice almost inaudible, “I’m sorry… for keeping him from you. I was… scared.”
Their eyes met, and tume seemed to slow down. The world outside ceased to exist. For a heartbeat, they simply stared, caught in the gravity of one another. Julian’s gaze softened, but a flicker of restraint passed over him. He looked away and that called Seraphina’s back to her senses too.
The silence between them was now awkward. “So you said you knew he was your child because of his photographic memory and his physical resemblance with you…”
Julian rubbed her arm. “Yeah,” he simply answered. Seraphina sighed tiredly into his chest.
“You won’t be alone anymore,” he said, voice heavy with the weight of his promise. “You have me now.”
Seraphina leaned into him, inhaling the heat of his body. Julian held her tighter. It was the kind of embrace that vowed protection.
But his mind was already shifting to Balto Keilani. Forty-eight hours. The ultimatum to either take Phoenix to him or let him take Seraphina. Neither would happen- not while Julian was still breathing.
He would rather start plotting his next moves, because Balto was a vicious man, who never backed down from his words.