Page 120 of Velvet Chains

“He’s a fantastic lawyer. You’ve tried to get him to go private a million times.”

“Maybe. You might do better without someone who is your friend.”

“Or maybe it’s easier to talk to him ‘cause he’s my friend.”

Julian waved me off. “And the feds?”

“They know something happened. They know Kieran Callahan killed Mickey Russell. I think they were there that night, but I’m not sure why. Now the DOJ is calling me, so they have to have something.”

He looked at me like I was breaking his heart. “You want me to adopt her because you think you’re going down.”

“No,” I said. “I want you to adopt her because if I do go down, or disappear, or get hit by a car, or choked out in my goddamn hallway again, I need to know that she’s safe. That she’s yours. That no one with the last name Callahan can touch her.”

He just stared at me, something working behind his eyes. Then, slowly, like he was testing the ground beneath him: “She waved at him. Like he was her teacher.”

“I know.”

“She called him Key.”

“I know.”

He blinked. “That was your friend. From when we came back to the house that day. Oh my…oh my fucking God.”A beat. Then his voice dropped, more accusation than question.

“After everything—you fucked him?”

I didn’t flinch. Just pressed my fingers to my temples. “My sex life is none of your business.”

He paced back a step like I’d struck him, then stopped. “Jesus Christ. So what does he have to do with—”

His voice faltered.

I watched him put the pieces together. Watched his mouth go slack as the realization hit.

“No…you’re not serious. This didn’t just start, it’s been…it’s been happening? You two have a history and he’s…”

“I didn’t tell him,” I said, steady. “I never told him. He figured it out on his own.”

Julian’s hands curled into fists. “You lied to me?”

“I didn’t lie.” I turned to face him fully. “He ghosted me. And for years, I didn’t even know why. When I was running for DA, his brother—Tristan—told him to run interference. And now…”

I let the silence hang. Let him feel how much I wasn’t apologizing.

He dragged a hand down his face. “Fuck me, Ruby. Are you serious right now?”

“I wouldn’t joke about this,” I said. My voice was calm. Almost gentle. I reached out, bracing myself against the edge of the sink. The tile was cold against my palm.

He looked up at me, eyes hollow. “Does he know?”

“Yes.”

That was when the fight left him.

No shouting. No threats. Just a breath that barely made it out of his chest and the look of a man who’d just figured out he was on the wrong side of history.

I didn’t say anything else. I didn’t need to.

Because the truth had already landed—and it was the kind of truth that didn’t come with a clean exit.