Page 133 of Betrayal of a Billionaire

Kyle stared at her for a moment before he shook his head. “I’m not leaving you with them.”

“They’re my family. They’re not going to hurt me.”

“I don’t trust them. I want to know you’re coming back.”

“If I don’t, you can break in here and kidnap me. I give you full permission.”

“That’s very funny, Julia. After you tell your sister I’m coming, and then I get arrested.”

She spun him around and pushed him to the door. “Just go home, Kyle.”

He reached the door and twisted to face her, grabbing her hand in his. “Tell me you’re coming back.”

She eyed him as he laced his fingers through hers.

“Please, Julia.”

“It’ll be fine. Now go, before someone catches you here, and they do arrest you.”

He twisted toward the door before he spun back and cupped her face.

“No,” she said as she blocked his kiss.

“Sorry,” he answered before he dug into his pocket and produced her wedding and engagement ring. “Your brother-in-law gave these to Dad. I’m giving them back to you because I expect you to come home.”

She stared down at them as he dumped them in her hand before he ducked out the door.

She pushed it closed behind him and collapsed against it, finally letting the turmoil of her situation sink in. She tightened her hands into fists as upset raged. She desperately tried to see her sister’s side of things as she crossed the room and navigated back to her bedroom, but she found herself unable to make sense of it.

She tugged on her clothes and returned to the kitchen, moving the charger nearer the kitchen table as she sank into a chair. Her mind roiled for hours until the first peaks of morning light hit the horizon.

A sleepy Alicia shuffled into the room in her robe and slippers, still yawning.

She froze as she spotted Julia dressed at the table. “Hey, Juju. You’re up early. You feel okay?””

Julia traced the grain of the wood on the table. “No, I don’t.”

“Do you need to go back to the hospital? Why didn’t you wake me?”

She pulled her gaze up to her sister. “No, I don’t need to go back to the hospital.”

Alicia swallowed hard as she crossed to her and perched on a chair. “Julia, what is it? You’re scaring me a little bit.”

Julia let her gaze fall again as she bit her lower lip. “I’m scaring you?”

She picked up the now-charged phone, filled with desperate messages and calls from Kyle, and waved it at her sister. “Phone’s working, Ally.”

“Oh, you got it to work. That’s…maybe we didn’t leave it long enough. When did you get it to work, just now?”

“It was never not working,” Julia answered.

“What? It wouldn’t turn on or charge. I tried it myself and–“

Julia tilted her head and shook it. “Ally, Kyle told me everything that’s happened since I was in the hospital. Now, I understand why Grant wasn’t around. You told them I filed a restraining order?”

Alicia winced. “Technically, you did.”

“What?” Julia barked out.