---- Chapter 10 Adler Irwin POV: The silence that followed my words was absolute. It was as if | had sucked all the air out of the office. The sycophantic employees who had been laughing at Harper moments before now stared, their mouths agape, their eyes darting between me, a weeping Juliana, and a stoic Harper. Juliana looked as though | had struck her. Her face, usually so composed and arrogant, crumbled. "Adler... what are you saying?" she whispered, her voice trembling. | didn't answer her. My focus was singular. Harper. | had hurt her. | knew that. The empty house, the silent phone, the cold divorce certificate-they were all testament to how badly | had miscalculated. | had pushed her too far, assuming her love was an infinite resource | could drain at will. When | saw her standing there, so small and defiant in her intern's clothes, holding that filthy mop bucket, something inside me snapped. The sight of Juliana, my fiancée, humiliating the woman who was still, in every way that mattered, my wife, was intolerable. | had to show Harper. | had to make her see that | was choosing her. That | had always, underneath it all, chosen her. ---- The cruelty, the punishments-they were meant to shape her, to make her the perfect wife for a man of my stature. | hadn't wanted to break her. "How could you do this to me?" Juliana sobbed, her voice rising to a hysterical pitch. "In front of her?" | turned to her, my patience gone. | grabbed the mop from the bucket, ignoring the dirty water that sloshed onto my suit trousers, and shoved it into her hands. "She wanted you to clean the toilets," | said, my voice flat. "So you will clean them. Every single one. In the entire building." Tears streamed down her face, carving paths through her expensive foundation. "But why? After everything... after she left you... why are you defending her?" She clutched her stomach. "I'm carrying your child, Adler! You nearly killed him when you left me at the office!" My child. The words were a bitter reminder of my own failures. Four times, Harper had carried my child. Four times, | had lost them. The doctor had said her body was too fragile, that another pregnancy would be dangerous. And here was Juliana, effortlessly fertile, using our unborn child as a bargaining chip. "That child," | said, the words tasting like ash in my mouth, "will never be an Irwin. It does not deserve a place in my family." ---- A collective gasp went through the office. The whispers started, sharp and cruel. Juliana' s face went white. "You... you monster," she choked out. "How many of your own children have you killed? Aren't you afraid of retribution?" Her words hit a nerve | didn't know | had. The four tiny ghosts of my unborn children rose up in my mind. Without thinking, my hand lashed out, the crack of it connecting with her cheek echoing in the stunned silence. She fell to the floor, holding her face, sobbing. | felt a sick satisfaction. This was for Harper. All of it. A grand gesture of my remorse. | turned back to Harper, expecting to see... something. Relief? Gratitude? A softening in her cold eyes? | saw nothing. She looked at me as if | were a stranger. Worse, as if | were a mildly distasteful insect she had found crawling on her shoe. Then, someone in the crowd threw a half-empty cup of coffee. It hit Juliana square in the back, the brown liquid staining her white silk blouse. The spell was broken. The office erupted in a cacophony of insults, all directed at the fallen queen bee. They had turned on her as quickly as they had fawned over her. Harper simply turned and walked away, her back straight, her head held high. She didn't want to see the show. ---- | followed her. | cornered her by the elevators, pressing her against the cool marble wall, blocking her escape with my body. Her scent filled my senses-clean, fresh, Harper. My lungs ached with it. "Harper," | said, my voice hoarse. My eyes were burning, raw with a sleeplessness that had haunted me since I'd found the house empty. "Talk to me." "There is nothing to talk about," she said, her voice devoid of emotion. She tried to push me away, her touch sending a jolt through me, but | was stronger. "What is all this?" | demanded, gesturing vaguely back toward the office. "The divorce, the internship, that... that ridiculous outfit. Are you trying to punish me? Is that it?" She just stared at me, her beautiful face a blank mask. | leaned closer, my desperation making me reckless. "I'm sorry, okay? The basement... | was wrong. | lost my temper. But | fixed it. | got rid of her for you. | punished her for you. We can go back to how things were." A small, humorless smile touched her lips. "You really don't get it, do you, Adler?" she whispered. "You never have." She slapped me. Hard. The sting on my cheek was nothing compared to the shock. ---- "Don't you ever," she hissed, her eyes blazing with a fire | had never seen before, "mention my parents again. You don't deserve to even speak their names." She shoved me, hard, and this time | let her go. She stepped into the waiting elevator without a backward glance. Just before the doors slid shut, she looked at me, her eyes filled with a chilling mixture of pity and contempt. "| got married again, Adler." The doors closed, leaving me alone in the hallway, the echo of her words ringing in my ears, more painful than any slap could ever be.