Then the Room Changed
The conversations shifted. The energy dropped.
Heads turned toward the entrance.
A man had arrived.
He moved with quiet authority—the kind that doesn’t perform power because it doesn’t need to.
Someone whispered behind me:
“That’s Julian Hartwell. New CEO of Morrison Industries.”
The name hit me like a physical blow.
Julian.
The man I had loved before fear rewrote my life.
The man I left because his father promised to destroy him if I stayed.
