Chapter 1
Then I noticed one of our wedding photographs among the collection. Julian remained untouched in the picture, but my face had been violently scratched away until I was almost impossible to recognize.
I took the diary downstairs and placed it directly in front of Julian. He stared at the cover for a long time before finally admitting that significant parts of his childhood had been kept from me.
“When I was ten, my father died in an accident. The police suspected my mother caused it, but there wasn’t enough evidence.”
I stared at him, stunned that something so serious had never been mentioned throughout our relationship.
“You never told me that.”
Julian lowered his eyes before explaining that Victoria had lost nearly everything after his father’s death. He had remained close to her because, as a child, he believed she depended on him and that abandoning her would leave her completely alone.
“She lost everything after that. I stayed with her because I thought she needed me.”
His attention returned to the diary as his expression grew increasingly troubled. Then he admitted that there had always been a disturbing pattern surrounding anyone who became too important in his life.
“Anyone who got close to me eventually disappeared. Friends. Girlfriends. People she didn’t like.”
My stomach tightened as I thought about the photographs upstairs and my own scratched-out face. What had seemed like an overbearing mother’s jealousy was beginning to look like something far more disturbing.
“Do you think your mother is hiding something?”
Julian remained quiet for several seconds, as though saying the answer aloud would force him to confront a suspicion he had carried since childhood.
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“I’ve always felt my father’s death wasn’t an accident.”
PART 3
Julian’s words hung in the cold night air between us, a heavy confession that shattered whatever remaining illusions I had held about his family.
