Chapter 4 - The Penthouse SanctuaryElise felt completely weightless in his arms as Julian carried her out of the boardroom and down the expansive, marble-floored hallway.
The few remaining assistants and security personnel pressed themselves flat against the walls, averting their eyes out of sheer terror as their boss stormed past.
Julian moved with urgent, relentless purpose, bypassing the main elevators in favor of a hidden biometric door that led to his private, secure lift.
He scanned his fingerprint, and the steel doors slid open instantly, revealing a reinforced, bulletproof elevator car.
Once inside, the doors closed, sealing them in a quiet, private cocoon that felt both incredibly safe and overwhelmingly dangerous.
Elise rested her head against his broad chest, listening to the steady, powerful thumping of his heart, a sound she had desperately missed every single night for eight months.
“You shouldn’t have come back here alone,” he murmured, his chin resting gently against the crown of her head.
“I needed the divorce finalized so I could disappear for good before the baby came,” she admitted, too exhausted to keep lying.
Julian’s arms tightened around her instinctively, an involuntary possessive reaction to the thought of her vanishing again.
“There will be no divorce,” he stated flatly, his tone leaving no room for argument.
“You signed the papers,” she reminded him weakly.
“I’ll burn them,” he replied without missing a beat, as the elevator glided to a smooth halt at the penthouse level.
The doors opened to a sprawling, luxurious fortress in the sky, completely isolated from the chaos of the city below.
Marcus, a towering man with a scarred face and cold, vigilant eyes, was already waiting for them in the foyer.
“The perimeter is locked down, Boss,” Marcus reported, casting a brief, shocked glance at Elise’s swollen belly before quickly looking away.
“Dr. Aris is prepped in the medical wing.”
May you like
Julian nodded curtly, carrying Elise past his sprawling living room and down a private corridor she had never been allowed to enter before.
He pushed open a set of double doors, revealing a state-of-the-art medical facility hidden right inside the syndicate headquarters.
