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I forced myself to release his wrist I heldand he wouldn’t walk out that door, but he didn’tbecause within two seconds of , Jude turned his back on me and walked away

Chapter 26

Jude

There had been a ti an estate like Rose Manor, but now it just felt like a luxuriously appointed prison No a ed that

But I doubted anything would

I was already a prisoner of my own mind and not in the way I’d spent most of my life

You’re it, just as you are You’re my future The question is, am I yours?

Nikolai hadn’t ht up in theto save the contract his boss so desperately wanted And based on the endless texts he’d been sendingthe business of Clifton Hayes just yet

I love you, Jude

Miss you

Please baby, just let me know you’re okay

I’d finally given up on carrying my phone around a couple of days earlier and when it had run out of battery, I hadn’t recharged it When I’d gotten close to charging it just to see if Nikolai had sent e

It hadn’t ht was tied to Nikolai I missed him more than I wanted to admit, but I kneas more the idea of him that I missed, not theso neatly back into the habits of my childhood I’d been so desperate to find sos or that I easily got distracted or that being organized didn’t cos in Nikolai that weren’t there

I still couldn’t believe I’d let it get as far as it had

Or that I’d gotten so close to letting it continue Nikolai had seeiven in to it, to him If Cliff’s men hadn’t been there, I most certainly wouldn’t have been able to walk away Part ofthe lie because life had just been so much better since Nikolai