Julian watched Ashley's headlights snake up the wet driveway, splashes of silver cutting through the drizzle. His pulse, which had been beating a sharp, annoyed tempo all evening, slowed in a painful relief.
It crept in, washing over him in a way that surprised him. It was the kind of relief that hit in the gut, not the chest, It was like a fist unclenching somewhere deep.
She parked beside his car and it suddenly started to drizzle. The driver turned off the engine and for a long moment she didn't move. Her silhouette sat motionless. The house around Julian was silent. No phones ringing, no heels clicking on marble, just the soft patterning of rain on glass and the faint tick of the clock in the hallway.
When the driver finally opened her door and she stepped into the damp air, Julian felt something twist inside him, an unexpected recognition of absence. She had only been gone yesterday, but the house had felt off balance without her. Now that she was back, it was as if a puzzle piece had slipped quietly into place.
It humbled him. Not in a grand, cinematic way. Just a small, human ache that reminded him he wasn't as self-sufficient as he liked to believe.
But as her footsteps approached, he pushed the feeling away, slipping the familiar mask back over his face.
The Julian Blackwood the world knew was poised, controlled, untouchable. That Julian didn't wait by windows or measure time by another person's absence.
Ashley stepped through the front door, droplets sparkling in her hair. Her coat was damp at the shoulders, and the faint smell of rain clung to her. She closed the door softly behind her and looked at him from across the foyer, the house's vastness shrinking between them.
It took Julian all the self restraint not to scoop her in his arms and shower her sweet beautiful face with kisses, after all she was his wife. But he stayed put and before he could speak, she said,
"Your mother was here," Her voice wasn't accusatory, just careful.
Julian stood, his hands tucked into his pocket,casually. "She came to tell me there will be a press briefing tomorrow morning."
Ashley's eyes narrowed slightly. "That's all?"
"That's the official reason." He turned to face her fully.
"Unofficially, she wanted to make sure the Blackwood name wasn't left dangling in a storm."
Ashley moved closer, her heels making soft sounds against the marble. "And what else did she say?"
Julian hesitated, then allowed a faint smile, though it didn't reach his eyes. "She wondered where you were, even though she saw you yesternight."
Ashley's breath caught almost imperceptibly. His attempt at making things lighter, flew over her head.
"Dont be alarmed," Julian continued.
" I tried to stop her from reaching out to you. I sent you that text in case she went on with it anyways, knowing her. Everyone is not used to having their privacy shredded on a public stage."
He met her gaze, steady but not unkind. "I'm sorry, I apologize on her behalf.."
Ashley studied him, searching for cracks in his composure. Who was this pleasant charming man? Where did the husband whom she signed a contract with vanish to? This version was a bit closer to the man she'd met and fallen for in Vegas.
Ashley let out a breath that trembled at the edges.
"She's not wrong to wonder. I probably should have stayed, you know."
Julian stepped forward, crossing the small distance between them. "You're allowed to breathe, Ashley. This wasn't your world, not the cameras, not the boardroom daggers. Expecting you to smile through it without flinching would be…" He searched for a word. "…inhuman."
Something in her face softened, but her chin stayed lifted. "Speaking about seeing my parents, my dad did his own findings and this was what he got" She pulled out the envelope and handed it over to him.
His eyes darkened with curiosity as he scanned the content of the document, seeking to make it make sense.
"What's this?" he frowned slightly
Ashley shifted, glancing toward the window where Camila's taillights had vanished earlier. " The person who accessed our wedding license's IP was traced to the Blackwood's family residence ."
His eyes widened as his eyebrow arched several itches higher, but his tone remained calm. " I appreciate your family's effort, thank you. Let me take it up from here"
Julian's lips curved in a rueful sarcastic half-smile. "Can't wait to find out who did this."
She huffed a quiet laugh that cracked the tension, just enough.
He gestured toward the living room. "Come sit. There's more."
She followed him, dropping her coat over the waiting arm of one of the staff. The living room smelled faintly of oak and rain-soaked air sneaking through against all odds. Julian remained standing, leaning against the mantel, while Ashley settled on the sofa's edge.
"Mother has arranged for my cousin, Ava, to come by tomorrow," Julian said.
"The one in PR ?" Ashley asked.
Julian nodded. "She's slick but discreet. She'll run us through possible questions before the press briefing tomorrow ."
Ashley folded her hands, thumbs fidgeting. "So tomorrow I stand beside you, smile like this isn't tearing us apart, and say…what exactly?"
"You don't have to say much," Julian replied, just like Brooke had told her. "Stand with me. Let them see you're not shaken. If you're asked directly, you say you'd let them know it's really not anyone's business what goes on inside a marriage or how we chose to start one."
Her mouth twisted. "Contract husband."
His eyes flickered just enough for her to notice. "That's not the headline tomorrow," he said quietly.
Ashley leaned back, exhaling. The silence stretched, heavy but not hostile.
Julian let himself watch her for a heartbeat longer than was polite. The curve of her shoulders, the way her nippled screamed for attention in the wet section of her top, the determined set of her jaw. These were details he'd never bothered cataloguing before. Now they mattered. She mattered, in a way that unsettled him.
He'd always thought of their marriage as a transaction, a mutually beneficial front. But the idea of her being out there, inaccessible for almost two days, had gnawed at him in ways he couldn't dismiss.
It surprised him how quickly she had become part of his life's architecture. How her absence had shifted his past routine. He was okay alone in the big house in the past but the house recently now felt empty without her.
This new realisation was dangerous as this meant cracks in his shield.
He straightened, tugged his mask tighter, and let his voice slip back into its usual smooth cadence. "You'll be fine, tomorrow."
Ashley tilted her head, studying him. "You sound sure."
"I am."
She smiled faintly, though it didn't quite touch her eyes. "You should get some sleep then. You'll need your charming, untouchable act in the morning."
Julian allowed himself a small, wry grin. "I thought I'd perfected that act already, so you think I'm charming?"
"Even perfect acts need rehearsal," she said, ignoring his side remark.
Her phone buzzed, a news alert about Blackwood's stock fluctuation, but she ignored it. Julian felt the thrum of the storm outside deepening, the rain tapping faster against the windowpanes, the world sharpening into tomorrow's battlefield.
He wanted to tell her that the text he had sent earlier wasn't about appearances or strategy. That it had been a pure, instinctive need. But words like that belonged to a different kind of marriage. One they hadn't admitted wanting. So instead, he said nothing.
Ashley stood up and made way for the stairs. "I'm not in the mood for dinner. I'll shower and try to rest. You should too."
He nodded. "Me too, Ava will be here at eight, don't forget."
She hesitated, then met his eyes squarely. "Thank you…for defending me. To her."
Julian's expression softened, just for a heartbeat. "You didn't need defending in the first place, there was basically nothing to defend."
Ashley didn't reply, but a flicker of something, relief, maybe gratitude passed through her gaze. She left the living room, her footsteps fading up the stairs.
Julian remained where he was standing, staring long after she had disappeared. The rain whispered on the roof like a thousand small secrets. For all his calculations, board politics, corporate rivalries, forged signatures, he couldn't have calculated this. That the woman he'd married for convenience would become the centre his thoughts spun around despite his cazy scedule.
Tonight, he allowed himself a single private truth, he had missed her.
Upstairs, a door clicked softly shut. The house, for the first time in days, felt whole again. Even if the world outside was still crumbling, their fortress built on contracts, secrets, and something that was starting to look dangerously like longing, stood proud and strong.