To Guard The Wrong Woman

Julian didn't hesitate. "Aggravated assault? Are you serious? You twisted my relationship with Cassidy in your head and crashed the car on purpose. She was willing to let it go, and now you’re calling the cops to make a scene?"

Behind him, Cassidy sobbed, clinging to his arm. "Julian, thank goodness you trust me."

Her gaze shifted to me, full of sorrow. "Genevieve, you gave me a concussion, and I was willing to forgive you. Why can't you just stop? Is it because I'm young and beautiful, and Julian fell for me? Are you so jealous you have to ruin my life?"

Her pitiful sobs made her look even more helpless.

Julian gently wiped away her tears, his expression tender. Then, he turned to the police.

"Officers, Genevieve is playing you. Not a word she says is true. I don't care that she's my wife—I'm not covering for her. She saw the dangerous road conditions and deliberately drove off that hillside. She gave Cassidy a concussion and then filed a false police report. She's the one you should be arresting!"

The two of them were in perfect sync, a well-rehearsed performance. They were certain they could talk their way out of this one, too.

Unfortunately for them, the police were now handling the case. This wasn't a he-said, she-said argument anymore.

An officer stepped forward, stating they had a preliminary investigation report and would be taking Cassidy to the station for questioning.

She cried and refused to go. "Julian, help me! There was no dashcam in the car, and there are no surveillance cameras on that mountain road! The snow was too heavy for anyone else to get a clear image. What evidence could they possibly have? These cops must have been bribed by the Sterling family! They're framing me!"

Julian still tried to shield her.

I sneered. "Do you want to be arrested for interfering with an investigation?"

His self-preservation instinct warred with his desire to protect her. After a brief hesitation, he backed away.

After the police left, he glared at me but said nothing. He was too busy on his phone, frantically pulling strings to make this mess disappear.

Even with the police taking Cassidy away, he still believed my family had bribed them. He never once suspected that Cassidy was the liar. He truly thought he could clear her name.

The boy who once shielded me from a blizzard now stood as a shield for another woman.

Once, this would have shattered my heart. But that person was gone. After staring death in the face, the part of me that could feel sorrow had died. All that remained was cold, hard rage.

I pulled out the divorce papers and threw them in his face. "We're done, Julian."

We were in the lab, and everyone was watching. Julian, with his fragile ego, couldn't stand the public humiliation, so he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the stairwell.

With a sharp, tearing sound, he ripped the divorce papers in half, letting the pieces flutter to the ground. "Genevieve, I don't have time for your games. Get out!"

His arrogance was so absolute it was almost breathtaking. A scalding heat rushed through me, and my nails dug into my palms.

"Games? You think this is a game? I almost died. I was in the hospital for two months while you were with your little lover, and you never called, not once. Do you really think you're still worth my time?"

He sneered. "That's what you get for trying to hurt Cassidy. You deserved every second of it."

Even after I'd nearly died, he felt nothing for me. He would always, always protect Cassidy.

The fire inside me blazed. I trembled, glaring at him.

Fine. He wanted to see the real Cassidy? I’d give him a front-row seat.

With trembling hands, I took out my phone, pulled up the dashcam video from my cloud storage, and shoved it in his face.

"My car has a dashcam," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "It auto-uploads to the cloud. Now, take a good look and see what really happened."