Chapter 388 Caged Bird And Promises

    Chapter 388 Caged Bird And Promises

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    He refused to be his father, grabbing until love strangled. Quinn was meant for open skies, not gilded prisons.

    Quinn had barely stepped out of Whitethorn Group’s foyer when she spotted Han striding toward her.

    “What are you doing here?” Quinn asked, surprise flickering across her face.

    “Laura told me you were meeting Julius, so I came to pick you up. Did he give you a hard time?” Han asked, worry edging his voice.

    He already knew why she hade. Laura had told him.

    “No.”

    “Then… did he agree?”

    “More or less,” she answered.

    Han’s brows knit. “What does ‘more or less‘ mean?”

    “He wants me to apany him somewhere tomorrow as the price,” she said.

    “Where exactly?”

    “I don’t know–he didn’t specify.”

    “You’re going even though you have no idea where?” he blurted.

    “I am.” Her tone was steady. “This concerns the person who saved Rowan’s life. If I stand idle and Serena’s stem cells never reach Lena, and she dies because of it, that guilt will shadow me forever.”

    “Then let mee with you,” Han said.

    She shook her head with gentle stubbornness and patted his tense shoulder. “I can handle this myself. Besides, Julius would never permit you to tag along. Come on, stop worrying. Nothing bad is going to happen.”

    “Do you trust Julius that much?” Han demanded, frustration crackling beneath the calm he tried to project. “He hasn’t even told you where he’s taking you.”

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    Chapter 388 Caged Bird And Promises

    56

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    I iknow /iithey /iibroke /iiup/i, iyet /iithe /iiknot /iin imy /iistomach /iiwon’t /iiloosen/ii. /iiMaybe /iiit’s /iibecause /iiI /iunderstandi, /iibetter /ithan ianyone/ii, /iithat /iiwhatever /iishe /iifeels /iifor /iime /iihas /iinever /iibeen /iilove/i.

    “If he meant to hurt me, he wouldn’t need to do this,” Quinn replied, voice calm but firm. “And I know–really know–he won’ty a finger on me.”

    Over the years she had known Julius, he had lied to her exactly once. That was about her brother. At every other moment, he had shielded rather than harmed her.

    Han’s eyes dimmed. He turned toward the gleaming fa?ade of Whitethorn Group’s headquarters, resentment sizzling beneath hisposed exterior.

    He told himself their split had been the price of shattered trust, yet even now she still believed in Julius–how could she not see that? One day, when that realization dawned, what would stop the two of them from finding their way back to each other?

    At the thought, Han’s heart lurched. His lips pressed into a bloodless line. iI /iican’t /iiept /ibithat/i/b. iNever/ii. /i

    High above, in the chairman’s office of Whitethorn Group’s building, Julius stood before the floor–to–ceiling windows, staring down at the za below.

    From that altitude, the two figures were nothing more than tiny crowns of hair. Yet he recognized them instantly. Quinn and Han.

    His knuckles cracked against the porcin cup he was crushing in his grip, jealousy rising like a wave against a seawall.

    “I am not my father. Not,” he whispered again and again, each repetition a lifeline that kept the madness at bay.

    The next morning, when Quinn stepped out of the apartment, she found Julius‘ sleek sedan already waiting at the curb.

    The chauffeur hastened from the driver’s seat and held the door with practiced deference. “Ms. Bridger, please.”

    Quinn nodded, slid into the plush interior, and settled beside Julius, who waited in the shadows of the backseat like an unsmiling statue.

    As the car glided out of theplex, Quinn tilted her head toward him. “Will you tell me now where we’re going?”

    “To visit my mother,” Julius answered, his tone as even as the hum of the engine.

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    Chapter 388 Caged Bird And Promises

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    Shock flickered across Quinn’s face. His mother was dead–or so she had always heard. iSo /iis ihe /itaking me ito /iithe /iigrave/ii? /i

    Thirty minutester, she stood before a polished headstone, an unexpected swell of emotion tightening her chest.

    Just two days earlier, she had knelt with Rowan at her parents‘ resting ce; now she honored Julius‘ mother beside him.

    A ck–and–white photograph of a radiant woman was set into the marble.

    Quinn needed no introduction. She knew she was looking at the face of Julius‘ mother.

    Keeping her voice low, she asked, “Why bring me here?”

    Back when she was still with Julius, Quinn had imagined returning here together on every memorial season, cing fresh lilies before his mother’s stone and letting the silence bless their joined futures. That dream never happened. During the entire period they were together, she had not stepped onto this grass once; only after their break–up did her feet finally bring her here.

    Julius lowered his eyes, his voice almost lost to the wind. “I wanted my mother to meet you.”

    He had once pictured standing here with Quinn, presenting her to the stone as the woman he meant to keep beside him for life.

    Now he was here toplete that abandoned wish, and to carve a new oath into the cold April air.

    “Quinn,” he murmured, each syble trembling, “I swear I will never allow you to die the way my mother did.”

    “What are you talking about?” Quinn asked, the question bursting out before she could tame the fear curling in her chest.

    “That is why,” Julius said softly, “from now on, you must keep as far from me as you can. Do not let me see you. Even if I lose control, the distance will stop me from hurting you.”