Chapter 2
Julia drummed her fingers against the desk as she chewed her lower lip, her gaze naturally falling to the framed wedding photo next to her monitor. The late morning sun glinted off the silver frame, making it sparkle as much as the moment that lay captured inside it: their bright smiles frozen in time from almost exactly one year ago.
Julia traced the edge of the frame before she pulled it closer. Less than twenty-four hours ago, she thought she’d leave this life behind.
That was before the shocking twist that landed her back in Harrington House just as unexpectedly as she had the first time.
She set the frame on the polished wood of the desk before she shifted her gaze to her glowing screen. A list of emails from Harrington Global filled her inbox already.
She paused, her gaze lingering on the screen at her email signature. The title CEO next to her name seemed both empowering and intimidating. Could she really fill such enormous shoes? Each email in her inbox represented not just a task but a test.
Her stomach clenched as she considered her new role as CEO. It was a part she had never expected to play. And one she still wasn’t sure she’d fill easily.
She fluttered her eyelashes as she considered the growing list of tasks she’d be tackling tomorrow, on her first day in the office.
With her fingers tented, she leaned back in the chair, wondering if she should add a meeting with Alexander Knight to her to-do list.
The man seemed to hold some unknown connection to DG Industries. Was he behind the string of attacks on the Harringtons and their holdings? Or was he merely another pawn in the nearly deadly chess match?
A shrill ringing interrupted her thoughts, and she pulled her gaze from the air, focusing on the name on her caller ID. Alicia.
Julia swiped to accept the call, pressing the phone to her ear. “Hey, sis.”
“Hey, Juju. How are things?”
“Interesting, as always. I’ve got a new project brewing.” Her lips curled at the edges as she realized her sister would assume the project was a new manuscript. She’d had no idea she’d become the newly minted CEO of a multinational corporation. That news wouldn’t have made it to the far-flung town of Harbor Cove.
“Oh, do tell,” Alicia said.
“Uh, it’s a…corporate espionage thriller.”
“Really?” The surprise in her sister’s voice was apparent. “I did not see this coming. It seems like you’re just a well of ideas lately.”
“When inspiration strikes…” Her eyes fell on the wedding photo, smile broadening.
“You gotta listen when your muses are speaking.”
A moment of silence stretched between them before Alicia spoke again. “So, umm, I know I’ve been a little quiet the past few days but I feel kind of…bad about that bombshell I dropped on you, and then the whole thing I said after about Luke.”
Julia’s hand went to the necklace around her neck, her thumb absentmindedly rubbing the compass at the mention of the man’s name. “It’s fine. I told you that. No big deal.”
“Well, it was to me. Beside me being an idiot for saying that to you…like your opinion doesn’t matter because you’re single which is not what I’m saying–”
“I get that,” Julia interrupted. “I know you didn’t mean that.”
“I guess what I meant was it would be so much easier if you were just here with me. I miss you.”
Julia chewed her lower lip. She really couldn’t go home right now. She couldn’t leave Harrington Global, and she didn’t want to lie to her sister’s face. It was bad enough doing it over the phone.
She’d already lied to her brother-in-law in person. And that had led to a disastrous misunderstanding in which Grant assumed she was having a tawdry affair.
She shoved the moment from her mind as her sister’s voice answered her silence.
“I know, I know. You’re too busy to come home.” Alicia sighed on the other end of the line.
“I’m sorry, Ally, I just…I really want to see you but…”
“But you don’t.”
“You know that’s not true at all,” Julia said. “I miss you, Ally. I just…”
“Can’t come home because of Luke.”
Julia bit her lower lip, happy to allow her sister to believe her ex-flame was the only reason she couldn’t return to Harbor Cove.
“Maybe I could come there–” Ally began.
“No!” Julia responded, a little too quickly and with a touch of sharpness in her tone.
“Well, thanks for really making me feel welcome, little sis.”
“That’s not…that came out wrong, I’m sorry.” Images of racing back and forth across town trying to be Mrs. Julia Harrington, CEO of Harrington Global and supportive wife extraordinaire, and a very single Ms. Julia Stanton all in the same day had her exhausted just thinking about it. “It’s just…you’d hate it here. There’s…smog and…people and cars and traffic and–”
“I get it. I get it. You don’t want me cramping your big city lifestyle.”
Julia let out a chuckle mixed with a sigh. “Hardly, Ally. I just—I know you wouldn’t like it here. It wouldn’t be a pleasant visit. Ask Ethan. I think he broke out in hives when we went to that coffee shop. Look, I’ll see what I can do about coming home, okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
Guilt coursed through her as she tightened her grip on her phone. “So, how are things with Ethan?”
Another sigh from her sister sounded. “Fine, I guess. I don’t know. It’s like one second we’re fine, and the next we’re not. Marriage is weird.”
“I’m sorry, Ally. I don’t know what to say.”
“You could say you’re booking a flight home so we can sit in our pajamas, eat popcorn, watch romcoms, and I can cry on your shoulder about how life’s not turning out how I expected.”
Julia offered a slight chuckle at the statement. Alicia had just captured her life in a nutshell, and she had no idea. The Maine cop still assumed her sister sat in her cramped apartment churning out mysteries for a living.
“You can still cry on my shoulder, you know. Just…virtually. I can even stream a rom-com right now if you’d like.”
“No, thanks. It’s not the same without you being here to hold my hand and pass me more tissues.”
“Ally, what is going on that you’re in tears over? Did Ethan do something? Or…did you?”
“No!” Her sister scoffed, and Julia imagined the disgusted look on her face. “I can’t believe you’d think I cheated.”
“Whoa, I didn’t say cheated. I said, ‘did something.’”
“I know what you were implying. And no, it’s not that extreme. At least not that I know of. We’re just…on two separate pages at the moment, it seems.”
Julia glanced at her own wedding photo. The words struck her heart. It seemed she and Grant were on two different pages at the moment, too. Though she was on a page she had no right reading.
“I’m sorry, Ally. Why don’t we set up a time to talk this weekend? You can tell me everything.”
A quiet knock at her door drew her attention behind her. Kyle leaned against the jamb, his hands shoved into the pockets of his scrubs. He offered her a soft smile as she held a finger up.
Alicia heaved a heavy sigh on the other end. “It’s just different over the phone, but…yeah, okay. Let me look at my calendar, and let you know when I have two hours to whine.”
“I’ll do the same. Text me if you need anything before then?”
“I will. I love you, Juju.”
“I love you, too, sis.”
Julia ended the call, not certain she was ready to face the next crisis looming on her doorstep.
“Did you tell her yet?” Kyle asked as he wandered into her office.
Julia pressed her lips together at the question, uncertain she was ready for the onslaught that he was undoubtedly about to unleash. “Good morning to you, too, Kyle.”
“Sorry,” he said as he dragged a chair closer to her and eased into it. “Good morning, Julia.”
She offered him a disingenuous smile as a warning.
“My question still stands no matter how pretty your smile is. That was your sister on the phone, right? The one who has no idea you’ve been married for a year and now are apparently staying married.”
“Yes, that was my sister. No, I did not tell her. And it’s still none of your business why.”
“You obviously have your reasons. I’m not sure I’d want to tell someone I got married to save someone’s image. So, how did he manage to convince you to stick around and play CEO and wife?”
Julia slouched in her chair, slumping her shoulders. This was the same argument over and over. Kyle continued to misunderstand the situation or misconstrue it to fit the negative image he’d already constructed about Grant. “Kyle, must we do this?”
“Yes,” he said with a bob of his head, “because I haven’t seen any evidence to prove that what I’ve been saying from the beginning is incorrect.”
Julia sucked in a deep breath as she sought the strength to deal with the argument all over again. “Kyle–”
“What did he give you this time? Six months? Nine? How long until I have to worry that you’ll disappear on me?”
“A year.”
“Another year. Another five million, too?”
“Yes,” Julia answered without meeting his gaze.
He shook his head as he leaned closer toward her. “Why do you put up with this?”
“Kyle, I have already explained this.”
“Not well enough,” he answered, his jaw tensing slightly. “You deserve so much better than cleaning up his messes and making him look good.”
“You know very well most of this isn’t his mess, it’s DG Industries that’s creating this chaos. Not Grant.”
“So, you’re staying because it’s not his fault. You’re allowing him to treat you like the hired help–”
“He does not do that, and you know it.”
“Do I? Does he or does he not demand your presence at the drop of a hat with no regard for your schedule? Does he or does he not thrust things upon you without asking? Does he or–”
“Stop, stop, stop,” Julia said with a raise of her hand. “You have to stop doing this. Stop looking for your gotcha moment. Please. The only thing you’re doing is making yourself miserable.”
“I’m sorry, Julia, but I am miserable. Especially with what’s going on. I hate this. I hate that you’re stuck with this.”
“I’m not stuck. I agreed to it.”
“Is it everything you thought it would be, Julia?”
“It’s done and over, okay? I’m not leaving, I’m not moving out of New Orleans. You should be happy. You weren’t pleased with the idea that I might leave, and now I’m not.”
“But you’re stuck with a man who treats you like property. This is beyond standard abuse, Julia, and you deserve so much more. You deserve someone who cherishes you.”
Julia pressed her lips together, trying desperately to come up with a response to the latest attack on Grant and her relationship with him.
“Julia,” he called, his voice softening as he clasped her hand between both of his.
She did not need to be treated like a child and have him explain a list of why she could do better. She flicked her gaze to him. Something clouded his icy blue eyes, but she couldn’t read the emotion. “Kyle–”
“No, I have to be honest.”
“But–”
“No, I can’t hide this anymore. I care about you…deeply. More than a friend. Julia…I love you.”
She clicked her tongue at the revelation, flicking her gaze away from him.A bevy of emotions rolled through her from disbelief to disappointment.
“Don’t do that. I’m being serious. I’ve fallen for you…hard. And I hate this because I could give you so much better than he does. Maybe not the random trips to Paris or the multiple massive houses, but I can guarantee that I’d never treat you the way he does.”
“Kyle, you need to stop.” She tried to tug her hand from his, but he held it firmly.
“No. You should hear this. You should know that you have other options. Don’t waste your time with him.”
Julia paused, in search of the right words for the situation, straddling between a firm response and an empathetic one. “Kyle–”
“Julia, you don’t need to answer now. Think about it.”
“No, I do need to answer now,” she insisted. “Because the answer is very simple. I’m married to Grant.”
“But you shouldn’t be,” he tried, his desperation to convince her growing.
“That’s neither here nor there. The fact is, I am. I need you to respect that.”
He slid his eyes closed, his eyebrows pinching.
“I know that’s not what you want to hear–”
“No, it’s not,” he answered, rising from his chair to pace the floor.
“But it’s the truth,” Julia answered as she stood and stopped him. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do any better than that.”
Kyle grabbed her hand again, pressing closer to her. “Julia, I just–”
“Kyle, stop.” She yanked her hand away. Her empathetic approach had only made him more intent on convincing her. “This conversation is over.”
She skirted past him and stormed into the hall.
He rushed after her. “No, Julia, it’s not. Not until I can make you see how wrong this is for you. You don’t have to go through with this second contract. Sure, take CEO if you want, but don’t stay married to him.”
“Kyle, that’s enough,” she called over her shoulder. “Let it go.”
“No, I will not let it go, Julia,” he shouted after her as she hurried down the stairs into the foyer. “Not while you’re trapped in a loveless marriage.”
She reached the marble floor, her footsteps echoing in the massive space as she spun to face him. “That’s my choice. Now, please stop.”
He closed the gap between them with a shake of his head. “No, Julia. I love you. And I–”
He squeezed his lips together, his features pinching before he reached for her. With her cheeks cupped in his hands, he pulled her closer, his lips pressing against hers in an unexpected kiss that made her freeze.
As their lips met, a storm of conflicting emotions raged within her. Surprise, guilt, confusion, empathy–they all melded into a turbulent sea as she stood too stunned to move.