Chapter 10 — If I Can't Have You

"He is not your responsibility," Rachel said.

Evelyn stood beside an open suitcase in the hotel suite. Her flight to New York left the next morning, but Julian's disappearance had turned every hallway sound into a warning.

"I know."

"Police have circulated his vehicle and added security to the building. Do not change your plans."

Evelyn zipped the suitcase. "I'm done changing my life around his choices."

By noon, reporters had gathered outside. Diane Cross arrived carrying a poster that read HARTWELL DESTROYED MY SON and pushed through the barricade with three paid livestreamers behind her.

"Evelyn!" she shouted. "Come down and face the family you ruined!"

Diane struck a security officer with her sign when he stopped her from entering. Police arrested her for battery, trespass, and violating the temporary protective order.

Evelyn watched from the window for only a moment before closing the curtain.

"No statement," she told Rachel. "Let the court handle it."

That evening, she attended one final meeting at Northline's temporary office. She approved payroll, signed the employee equity plan, and refused Arthur's offer to place Hartwell executives in control.

"They can advise," Evelyn told him. "They don't get to inherit what these people built."

Arthur nodded, pride hidden beneath his usual severity.

Adrian drove her back to the hotel. At the curb, Evelyn noticed a familiar bakery box on the rear seat of the car sent by Northline.

"I left that at the office."

Adrian glanced back. "Want me to take it upstairs?"

"No. I promised the night staff dessert. I'll carry it."

She crossed the service entrance alone while Adrian took a call beside the car.

A hand covered her mouth before she reached the elevator.

The needle entered her arm through her coat.

She saw Julian's face, thinner and wild-eyed, before the corridor folded into darkness.

Evelyn woke in the bedroom of the North Shore house.

Her wrists were bound to the bedframe. The curtains had been removed, and the sharp smell of gasoline saturated the room.

Julian sat on the floor beside her.

"You shouldn't have made me come here," she said.

"I didn't know where else we still belonged to each other."

"We never belonged to each other."

She tested each knot while she spoke. The cord around her right wrist was doubled. The left had been tied in haste, with enough space to rotate her hand if she could tolerate the friction.

Julian had boarded the windows, but cold air moved beneath the bedroom door. Somewhere downstairs, glass broke. He had prepared the fire quickly and badly. That meant escape routes might still exist.

"The police are looking for you," she said. "If you release me now, your attorney can prove you stopped before anyone was hurt."

"Always solving the problem."

"Someone had to."

"I used to love that about you. Then every answer you had made me feel smaller."

"So you punished me for being the person who kept us alive."

His silence confirmed more than a confession would have.

Evelyn continued speaking, keeping his attention on her voice while she worked her left thumb against the knot. Each movement stripped skin from her wrist, but the gap widened.

He smiled as tears filled his eyes. "Serena is going to prison. Crosswell is gone. My mother blames me for everything. I thought if I punished Serena, if I signed your papers, you might remember who I was before all of this."

"I remember."

"Then you remember that I loved you."

"The boy I loved would have been horrified by the man holding me here."

Julian lifted a lighter from the floor.

"I can't start over while you build a life with Adrian."

Evelyn forced her breathing to remain steady. Her smart ring had been taken, but her watch was still beneath her sleeve. She rotated her wrist until the emergency button pressed against the bedframe.

Once. Twice. Hold.

A tiny pulse confirmed the signal.

"You can still walk away," she said. "Put down the lighter and untie me."

"So I can watch you leave again?"

"So you can decide that losing isn't the same as dying."

His face twisted. "You took everything."

"I took back what was mine."

Footsteps thundered downstairs.

Julian looked toward the door.

Adrian's voice rose from the hall. "Evelyn!"

"You brought him here." Julian's thumb struck the lighter wheel. "Of course you did."

The bedroom door burst inward. Adrian stopped when he saw the gasoline shining across the floor. Behind him, police shouted for Julian to drop the lighter.

Evelyn pulled against the restraints. "Adrian, stay back."

Julian laughed. "She always protected other people. That's why we could use her for so long."

"Let her go," Adrian said. "You want someone to blame? Blame me."

"No," Evelyn said sharply. "This is not a trade."

She twisted her left wrist until the loose cord slipped over her thumb. Pain tore the skin, but one hand came free.

With that hand, she seized the heavy bedside lamp and smashed it through the nearest boarded window. The glass broke outward, pulling smoke toward the opening and marking the room for firefighters outside.

"Drop the lighter," she told Julian. "You don't get to call this love when I am the one fighting to survive it."

The first officer reached the doorway and trained his weapon on Julian. A second moved toward the hall extinguisher.

Julian saw it.

He dropped the lighter.

Flame raced along the gasoline before anyone could reach it.

Evelyn tore at the knot around her other wrist. Adrian crossed the burning threshold, covered her with his coat, and pulled the cord loose with both hands.

"I told you to stay back."

"You can be furious outside."

They reached the doorway as part of the ceiling cracked above them.

Julian stood behind the flames, staring at Evelyn.

For one terrible second, she thought he would drag her back.

Instead, he lunged forward and shoved both Evelyn and Adrian through the door.

The burning beam crashed down between them.

Firefighters pulled Evelyn into the hall as the room disappeared behind smoke.

Julian did not come out.