Chapter 19
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Chapter 19
When Avery raised the pepper spray at him, Julian was stunned. Disbelief flickered in his eyes, followed by hurt.
Jace, on the other hand, grew even more extreme and volatile.
Sometimes, he broke down, begging through tears. He slapped his own face, insisting that he regretted everything and truly loved her.
Other times, he lost his temper at her indifference, smashing whatever was within reach. He even pulled her away from her classmates in the middle of a conversation, leaving them so alarmed that they called the police.
He used his family’s influence to pressure the university and her landlord, cornering her academically and financially until she gave in.
The brothers saw each other as enemies.
Julian put his men around Jace and had them intercept him whenever he approached Avery.
Jace struck back by wrecking every attempt Julian made to win Avery over-crushing flowers, throwing away gifts, and blasting noise loud enough to drown out any word Julian tried to say
to her.
That suffocating pursuit didn’t make Avery feel cherished. It only left her with disgust and
fear.
This wasn’t love at all, but possession and selfishness disguised as devotion.
Her disgust grew until just seeing them made her stomach turn.
So, she threw herself into her studies. She earned straight As, applied for scholarships, and started building her own savings. She poured herself into group projects, made new friends, and began a fresh chapter.
She even pushed herself to give the men pursuing her a chance, although the ache in her heart still lingered. She tried everything she could to move on.
Her firm rejection and cold indifference cut into Julian and Jace like a knife.
After every failed attempt and every outburst, Jace began to change. The arrogance he once carried gave way to a dark obsession weighed down by pain.
He did regret it, and the guilt tore at him, but every move he made only pushed Avery further
away.
Julian suffered, too. He tried to learn how to love Avery with his whole heart. He came to learn
Chapter 19
her favorites and noticed what she needed, instead of just taking her for granted.
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He swallowed part of his pride. He learned to be patient, read her expressions, and keep his composure under her icy gaze.
But the hurt he’d caused ran too deep, and he had realized his feelings far too late. To Avery, his sudden tenderness looked like nothing but an act.
Whatever change he showed meant almost nothing. With Jace hovering, even Julian’s better
efforts came off as clumsy and irritating.
They hounded her in a foreign city, but there were no winners-only pain and exhaustion.
They grew jealous at every hint that the other might be getting closer to Avery. Yet, her indifference left them helpless, and the fear of losing her for good only drove them into a deeper frenzy.
Three years in Lambain gave Avery the chance to build a new life. She worked tirelessly, letting sweat and late nights wash away the past.
By the time she graduated with honors from a top program, she had secured an offer from Sterling Holdings, one of the leading firms back in the country.
She wasn’t the woman who needed a man to lean on anymore, and she wasn’t the woman who begged for scraps of love.
She cut her long hair short. The fear and uncertainty in her eyes were gone, replaced by calmness and unshakable strength.
The old wounds never vanished, but she learned to live with them, building walls she knew how to keep standing.
She chose to return to her country for her career, not out of nostalgia.
She braced herself for whatever waited-gossip, rumors, or the Mercer brothers who still didn’t understand the word no. All she wanted was a clean break and a life that was truly her
own.
On the day her flight was booked, the lookouts posted near her apartment and around campus sent word back within the hour.
Julian was in the middle of an important cross-border merger meeting when Daniel hurried in. He leaned down and whispered a few words in his ear.
The calmness on his face shattered into urgency so sharp that it was nearly panicked. He shot to his feet, his chair screeching back.
“We’ll
pause here!” he told the wall of executives on the screen, then hurried out before anyone could react.
Chap 18
“Get the car! Go to the airport!” he barked into his phone, his voice trembling as he took the elevator down to the lobby.
He’d waited three years for this. He couldn’t miss it.
Across the city, Jace was slouched in a private club with a drink in hand when his phone lit up.
The moment he hung up, he shoved a woman off his lap and lurched to his feet, his eyes sharp with a desperate light.
“She’s back? She’s finally back! Hurry! We’re going to the airport! I’m not letting Julian get
there first!”
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