Chapter 524
Chapter 523:
“Something simple. You will end your relationship with Justin Collins. Immediately. Completely. You will make him believe you never loved him, that you used him, that you’ve found someone more advantageous.” He reached out and touched her chin with a finger that felt like ice. “You will destroy his heart so thoroughly that he never looks for you again. In exchange, your uncle’s file disappears. Your family remains intact. A noble sacrifice p>
Carmen felt tears on her face — hot and humiliating. “Why? Why are you doing this p>
“Because Justin Collins is the future.” Conrad’s voice was soft, almost reverent. “And you are a distraction. A weakness. A liability that could destroy everything we’ve built.” He returned to his chair, once again the image of professional detachment. “You have twenty-four hours. After that, the FBI receives their evidence. And your uncle spends the next twenty years in federal prison p>
The dream shifted and fragmented. She was standing in rain, saying terrible things to a younger Justin. She was on a plane, staring at clouds shaped like mountains. She was in a hospital, screaming, while something precious was taken from her.
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Then silence. Darkness. Peace.
Carmen woke to afternoon light, a throbbing ankle, and the absolute, crystalline certainty of truth.
She remembered everything.
The threat. The choice. The performance of cruelty she had staged to save her family, destroying the only love she had ever known. The pregnancy she had discovered too late. The accident. The seven years of emptiness that followed.
And Conrad Sterling — the architect of all of it. The man who had used her family’s crimes as leverage, who had manipulated her into dismantling her own happiness, who had stood in the Collins family lodge two nights ago and smiled at her with the quiet confidence of someone who believed his secrets were still safe.
She turned her head. Justin sat in the chair beside the bed, his laptop open, his attention divided between work and her. He looked up when she moved, his expression shifting to concern.
“How are you feeling? The doctor said p>
“I remember.” Her voice was hoarse and barely audible, but it stopped him completely. “Justin, I remember everything. The office. Conrad. The threat against my uncle. Why I left you.” She pushed herself upright, ignoring the pain in her ankle, gripping his hand with desperate force. “I never wanted to go. I never stopped loving you. He made me. He had evidence — federal charges — he said he would destroy my family if I didn’t p>
“Shh.” Justin set aside his laptop and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. His hands found her face, cradling it. “Carmen, slow down. You’re not making sense p>
“I am making sense.” She pulled back, frustration cutting through the relief of finally speaking truth. “Conrad Sterling. Your chief of staff. He threatened me. He forced me to leave you. He’s the reason I disappeared, the reason I said those terrible things. He has been lying to you for seven years, Justin. He p>
She stopped. Because Justin’s expression hadn’t changed. No shock. No outrage. No dawning comprehension.
Only patience. The careful, controlled patience of a man who had been waiting for this moment.
“You knew,” she whispered. “You already knew p>