Chapter 35 - An Uninvited Arrival
The outer cabin door was shoved open before the deckhand could lock the latch. Two men in sharp charcoal suits stepped into the vestibule, but behind them walked someone I never expected to see standing in a wet harbor slipway at three in the morning.
It was Julian Vance.
He looked uncharacteristically disheveled. His silk tie was loosened, his bespoke overcoat was damp from the sea spray, and the cool, untouchable arrogance that had defined his demeanor for eight years of our marriage had cracked, revealing hollow eyes rimmed with exhaustion and panic.
"Ava," Julian breathed, his gaze instantly locking onto me. He completely ignored the crew members who moved to intercept him. "Ava, step away from him. You don't know what you're doing."
I stood my ground, my posture straight, my chin lifted high. "You shouldn't be here, Julian. This is private property. Or did you forget that your name doesn't buy the entire ocean?"
Julian took another step forward, raising his hands in a placating gesture. "Ava, please. Listen to me for thirty seconds. I know what you think. I know what he told you." He pointed a trembling finger at Arthur. "He's manipulating you! He abandoned you for twenty years while he played offshore market games! He left you with nothing!"
"And you gave me everything, didn't you?" I snapped, my voice ringing with cold contempt that made Julian flinch. "You gave me an empty apartment, silent dinners, and an invisible cage designed to steal my inheritance before I turned thirty-one! Did you think I would never find out, Julian? Did you think I would stay in that kitchen forever, leaving dinners in the fridge while you calculated how to bury my father's legacy?"
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Julian's face drained of all color. He looked from me to Arthur, his lips parting in shock. "Ava... no. My father... my father set up that trust. I didn't want—"
"You signed the corporate renewal three months before you asked me to marry you," Arthur interrupted, his voice dropping to a dangerous, gravelly baritone. "I have the digitized signatures, Julian. You knew every single word of the clause."
