Twisted (Never After #4)(52)

My hand trembles slightly as I turn the handle, because it’s an overwhelming feeling to tell the man who I’ve always been afraid to let down that I got married to someone without him there.

I went through all this trouble to try and keep from upsetting him, and yet here I am coming full circle, about to disappoint him anyway.

His eyes light up when I walk in the room, and I force the smile to stick on my face even as my insides burn with grief as I take him in. He’s lost a lot of weight, even though it’s only been a week and a half since I’ve seen him. His face is gaunt, and if it wasn’t for his beard, which is growing in nicely despite his body giving up the fight, he’d look almost skeletal.

There’s a scent of Vicks VapoRub in the air, the menthol tang hitting my nose and making my eyes water, and his gaze is glossed over from him being doped up on pain meds to keep him from feeling the worst of the lung cancer breaking down his body.

“Yasmin,” he coos.

“Hey, old man,” Julian says from behind me, grabbing a chair from the small round table in the corner of the room. He drags it over to the bedside, and I expect him to sit down, but he surprises me, moving over to me instead and placing his hand on my lower back, ushering me toward the seat and helping me into it.

“Avoiding me?” Julian directs to my father as I settle into the chair.

My father’s jaw stiffens the slightest bit, but then he blows out a deep breath and shakes his head. “I’ve just been feeling a little under the weather. Figured you had everything under control.”

Julian nods as he pulls up the other chair right next to me, sitting down and crossing his leg over the opposite knee. “You know I do. Still, I’d like to catch you up on some things.”

My father sighs, rubbing his forehead like a headache is forming. “Yasmin, give us a few minutes.”

I move to stand, though everything in me wants to stay, even if it’s just to be a silent bystander watching them talk shop. Every second I can spend in my father’s presence I want to greedily grab up like treasure, because I don’t know how many seconds we have left.

Julian’s warm hands come down on top of my thigh, sending heat spreading up my leg and through my abdomen. My breathing falters at the feeling.

“Sit.”

It’s one word, but the command in it is unmistakable.

My father’s eyes harden. “If you’re here to talk business, she doesn’t need any part of it. She’s my daughter, not a business partner.”

His words sting, the same way they always do, and I want to ask him why he’s even bothering to leave me everything if he’s so against me being any part of it, but I bite down on my tongue instead, jolting from the sharp prick of pain.

Julian nods, brushing his hands down the chest of his perfectly fitted black suit before meeting my father’s gaze head-on. “And now she’s my wife. Which means she’s my partner.”

My father’s face starts to shift, anger becoming so prevalent on his features I can practically see the steam coming out of his ears. “Wife?”

“I know you must be upset,” Julian continues. “And it’s not fair that I took her from under your nose. Despicable, really. But what’s done is done.” He leans forward. “At least I waited until you approved the wedding before we did anything, old man. But honestly, can you blame me? Your daughter…”

He looks to me with such a genuine look of adoration that my heart skips.

Damn, he’s good.

Asshole.

“Your daughter is everything. Surely you remember being in love.”

I can’t help the small huff that escapes when I think about Julian Faraci ever actually falling in love.

His eyes move back to my father’s, and I follow the gaze, chewing on the inside of my lip until it stings. I expect a fight. After all, my baba isn’t the type of man to go down without one, and his authority is law. The fact that Julian is so blatantly disregarding him and taking the power for himself so effortlessly is almost awe-inspiring to watch. If not absolutely terrifying.

Because if he can go against my father, who would ever go against him? I need to talk to Riya.

“There’s no going back, so please, Ali, just be happy that she’s mine.” He leans forward.

My father sighs, his stare moving from Julian to me, his gaze like stone.

“Yasmin,” he starts, his voice sharp. “How could you— ”

“No,” Julian cuts in.

The silence that blankets the air is thick, and I hold my breath, afraid that if I move, it will pierce the tension until it detonates like a bomb.

“You will not take it out on her,” Julian continues. “This was my decision. The only thing she’s done wrong is love a man she wasn’t supposed to love and give in to his selfish, demanding ways.”

My throat swells as I listen to Julian talk, gratitude, as misplaced and unwelcome as it is, surging through my veins and warming my heart. I’ve never had anyone stand up for me before, and even though it’s not real, even though he forced me and is blackmailing me, there’s a twisted sense of happiness that he’s refusing to let me take the fall. He’s protecting my relationship with my father as much as he can, even though he’s the cause of all the strife.

I hate him just a little less in this moment, and it makes me sick.