Secrets Behind the Asylum Doors

If you hadn't dumped him back then, you'd be the one holding the title of his wife right now, Serena, his gorgeous girlfriend, smirked at me across the table at our college reunion.

Julian leaned back against the leather upholstery, his long fingers idly flicking a custom lighter open and closed. He kept a possessive arm draped around Serena's waist, though his eyes swept over me like I was nothing more than garbage left on the curb. "That's all in the past."

The rest of the table practically salivated at the drama, erupting into a chorus of instigating cheers and whistles.

Under the crushing weight of his stare, my fingertips instinctively curled over the raised scar hidden beneath my sleeve. I forced the corners of my mouth up into a stiff, mechanical smile. "Yeah. We we haven't had anything to do with each other for a long time."

Chapter 1

"If I remember right, Juliet was the one who dumped him, wasn't she?" As soon as his girlfriend slipped away to the restroom, the gossip started buzzing around the table.

That Juliet was me.

Julian sat directly across from me. A faint, polite smile played on his lips, but his eyes were ice.

This was the first time we'd seen each other in six years. The impact hit me like a physical blow to the chest. I only showed up tonight because the class president swore Julian wouldn't be here. I never expected to be trapped in the same room with him.

The Julian of today was a self-made titan. A young, elite entrepreneur who had returned from overseas to conquer the city's business world. He looked sharp in a flawlessly tailored suit, his features striking and hard-edged.

The limited-edition Patek Philippe on his wrist caught the harsh light, and the rest of our former classmates circled him like sharks smelling blood in the water, raising their glasses and practically begging for his attention.

And then there was me. A washed-up shell of who I used to be.

"She was the one who ended it, yes." Julian's voice was perfectly smooth, feeding the sharks exactly what they wanted to hear.

I could see the wheels turning in their heads. The narrative was obvious: I was a gold digger who couldn't handle the struggle, bet on the wrong horse, and lost everything.

"Hey Juliet, didn't that guy you ran off with end up behind bars?"

"I heard you're drowning in his debt now. Let me guess, you came to the reunion looking for a handout?"

Through the barrage of sneers and cheap shots, Julian's dark, heavy gaze stayed locked on me. He didn't say a single word. My throat tightened, and I just kept that stiff, agonizing smile plastered on my face.

The door swung open, and Serena glided back into the private dining room. Catching the suffocating tension in the air, she tilted her head with a flawless smile. "Did I miss something fun while I was gone?"

Julian instantly dropped his icy demeanor. He reached out, his long fingers gently wrapping around hers. "Nothing at all. Just catching up."

She slipped back into her seat with perfect grace, her gaze pinning me to the chair. A sweet smile dimpled her cheeks. "Julian has mentioned you before. If you hadn't dumped him back then, you'd be the one holding the title of his wife right now."

Schadenfreude practically dripped from the eyes of the people around the table. Back in college, my family had been at the top of the food chain. I walked on water, surrounded by people desperate to be in my orbit. That kind of bitter envy doesn't just fade with time; it ferments, turning into the perfect venom to spit at me now that I was at rock bottom.

Julian cut through the suffocating silence, his tone absolute and chillingly dismissive. "That's all in the past."

The table instantly shut up. Recognizing that the alpha in the room was closing the subject, they scrambled to pivot the conversation.

Serena raised her crystal wine glass toward me. "Thank you for letting him go. You absolutely have to come to our wedding."

My fingernails dug into the thick fabric of my sleeve, pressing hard against the raised, jagged scar on my wrist. "Congratulations," I pushed past the sandpaper in my throat.

"Why the hell didn't you just explain it to him?" Cleo practically screamed through the phone speaker, furious on my behalf.

The reunion had wrapped up early. I stood alone in the freezing wind, pulling my cheap wool coat tighter around my trembling shoulders. My breath plumed in the icy air. "He has a girlfriend."

Dead silence on the other end of the line. "A girlfriend?" Cleo demanded, total disbelief lacing her voice.

"Yeah."

Groups of former classmates brushed past me in twos and threes, heading to their warm cars. The harsh yellow glow of the streetlights hit the fresh snow, making the ground sparkle like shattered glass.

"But it's so unfair. You finally got to see him. You fought so damn hard for this"

"Cleo. Nobody just stands in place waiting for you forever." The words tasted like ash on my tongue.

Some truths, if you don't say them in the moment, turn toxic. Dragging them out years later doesn't fix anything; it just makes the reality more sickening.

The freezing wind slashed at my face, making my eyes sting and water. I blinked hard against the burn. "I'm giving up."

I had clawed my way out of hell for years, dragging myself out of the mud just so I could stand in front of him with some shred of dignity. But I was too late.

"Okay. Just get home safe. We'll talk."

Chapter 2

The temperature had already plummeted below freezing in the dead of winter. Cabs were impossible to catch. After just a few minutes of standing on the curb, my fingers grew numb. My phone screen mocked me: In queue.

The sharp click of stilettos echoed behind me, followed by Serena's sickeningly sweet voice. "Julian, the snow is absolutely gorgeous."

"It's freezing out here. Get in the car first, I'll be right there." Julian's deep, unmistakable baritone cut through the icy air.

"Don't take too long." Serena brushed past me, shooting me a heavy, loaded look. She walked a few steps away and pulled open the door of a sleek black town car.

The movement was deliberate, perfectly exposing the heavy, antique diamond bracelet dangling from her wrist. The glare of it physically stung my eyes. It was his family's heirloom. The exact same piece that used to sit on my wrist.

When I ended things, I had someone hand-deliver it back to him.

So she wasn't just his girlfriend. She was his fiance.

The crowd had cleared out. It was just him and me. My rideshare still hadn't shown up. Julian stood right behind me in silence.

We stayed frozen in that suffocating quiet, our two shadows overlapping under the harsh glare of the streetlamp.

My mind snapped back to six years ago. The night I broke it off, Julian had gotten into a car wreck rushing to see me. His best friend, Parker, had called me, his voice dripping with venom.

"Julian's in the hospital."

"Is his life in danger?"

"If he's not dying, you're not going to show up?"

"Please take good care of him."

"Juliet, he got the overseas fellowship. He's going to make it big. Why couldn't you just wait a little longer? Are you really that desperate for cash?"

"You couldn't repay everything he's done for you in ten lifetimes. Did you forget all of it?"

Parker had practically broken down over the phone, stopping just short of calling me a heartless bitch. Then, the phone was snatched away on the other end, followed by the sickening crash of it being smashed against a wall.

I had abandoned him. I left him as roadkill. It was only natural that he hated my guts.

"How much do you owe?" Julian's voice, devoid of any warmth, yanked me back to the freezing present.

"None of your business."

I sucked in a breath of freezing air. My throat, already raw from the cheap liquor, flared in agony, and I launched into a violent fit of coughing. The cold air shredded my windpipe. Blinding pain.

I doubled over, gripping the icy metal of the lamppost to keep from collapsing. The alcohol I'd forced down earlier churned in my empty stomach, and hot tears streamed down my face from the sheer force of the hacking.

Julian stood right beside me. Watching with dead, empty eyes.

A beat-up sedan finally rolled to a stop in front of me. The driver rolled down the window. "Heading to the Vanquish Estates?"

"Yeah." I braced my hands on my knees, forcing myself upright. I gasped for air and reached for the door handle.

A massive hand gripped my upper arm and yanked me back. I crashed hard into Julian's solid chest.

"What are you doing going there?" he demanded.

The Vanquish Estates was an ultra-exclusive billionaire's row. Security didn't just let nobodies stroll through the gates.

I shoved frantically at his chest, but he simply flipped his grip and locked his fingers around my wrists like a steel vice. His searing body heat burned right through my skin, sending a violent jolt straight to my chest.

I wrenched my arms twice. Nothing. I tilted my head back, staring directly into the terrifying, pitch-black storm brewing in his eyes. "What exactly do you want to say, Mr. CEO?"

His jaw tightened. His dark eyes remained a bottomless abyss, utterly unreadable. The brutal wind howled around us, whipping my messy hair across my face. I pulled my lips back into a bitter, self-deprecating smirk, voicing exactly what he was thinking.

"You're just like the rest of them, aren't you? You think I'm making my money on my back."

"Fifty grand a month. Is that enough?" Julian cut me off, his face carved from ice.

"What are you talking about?"

A layer of raw, venomous mockery finally cracked through the ice in his eyes. "Aren't you desperate for cash?"

"Fifty grand, a hundred grand. Not enough? Name your price."

He reached into the inner pocket of his bespoke suit and pulled out a leather-bound checkbook. He ripped a blank check from the spine and tossed it, along with a diamond-encrusted fountain pen, straight into the dirty snow at my feet.

His eyes held no humanity, looking at me with the sickening superiority of a billionaire tossing a bone to a stray dog.

I raised my hand.

A sharp, explosive slap shattered the dead silence of the freezing night.

Chapter 3

The explosive crack of my palm against his cheek shattered the dead silence of the freezing night.

A stark, red handprint bloomed across Julian's jaw.

A sharp gasp pierced the air from the distance. The heavy car door slammed open as Serena rushed out into the snow.

"Live your perfect little life, and keep your hands to yourself." I threw the words at his face, climbed into the back of my rideshare, and slammed the door shut.

"You actually slapped him?" Cleo shoved a chipped mug of hot water into my trembling hands.

"Yeah. He tried to buy me as his sugar baby."

I curled into a tight ball on our lumpy thrift-store sofa. A twisting cramp seized my stomach, radiating sharp spikes of agony through my ribs. I forced myself to swallow a tiny sip of the scalding water.

It lasted exactly three seconds before my stomach rejected it. I scrambled off the couch, barely making it to the cramped bathroom before I threw up everything into the toilet bowl.

Cleo knelt beside me, her palm rubbing soothing circles between my shoulder blades. "You have a wrecked stomach and you still downed that cheap liquor."

I dragged in a ragged breath, turning on the faucet to splash freezing water onto my face. I wiped the dripping wetness from my mouth with the back of my hand. My esophagus felt like someone had dragged broken glass down my throat.

"You loved him for so many years. Was it really worth this?"

I slowly lifted my head, meeting my own hollow stare in the cracked vanity mirror. Clumps of damp black hair plastered against my forehead. My face was the color of dirty chalk.

Cleo's voice seemed to drift in from underwater, muffled and distant. "If you hadn't been so ruthless about the breakup back then, he wouldn't be standing where he is today"

My mind flashed back to Julian's fiance. Serena carried herself with this effortless, radiant sunshinethe kind of blinding confidence that comes from a life completely untouched by tragedy. I vaguely remembered a time, a lifetime ago, when I used to shine exactly like that. But then I crashed and burned too spectacularly.

By the time I finally dragged myself out of the dirt, that light was extinguished.

After Cleo finished her shift at the Vanquish Estates, we linked arms and trudged back to our shoebox apartment.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. The caller ID flashed Parker's name. Julian's best friend.

"Juliet," he started, his tone heavy with awkward pity. "If you're really struggling to make ends meet, I can pull some strings and get you a job."

I didn't say a word. I just waited for the other shoe to drop.

"They're getting married next month. Serena is a really good person, and her family comes from old money. You just"

"I'm not going to bother him again. You can relax."

A heavy stretch of silence hung on the line. Then, he offered a useless, hollow defense. "We just want Julian to finally be happy."

"Yeah."

Every single friend from back then had drawn their lines in the sand. Without exception, they all stood firmly on Julian's side.

The call clicked dead. Cleo's eyes were rimmed with angry red. "They don't know a damn thing."

"It doesn't matter." Since I still needed to stay in the city for a while, I desperately started hunting for a job close to our apartment.

During the interview, the HR manager squinted at my file with open suspicion. "You have a history of severe clinical depression?"

"That was in the past. I've been completely cleared, and I brought the official medical paperwork from my psychiatrist to prove it."

My last few job prospects had torpedoed my application during the background check the second they saw that flag. But this was a small, desperate startup. By the time night hit, they had already emailed me an offer letter.

I honestly thought the reunion was the absolute last time I would ever cross paths with Julian. But I underestimated my own rotten luck.

Three days later, Julian materialized in our tiny office out of thin air.

He had bought out the entire startup and installed himself as my direct boss.

And my desk had been forcibly relocated directly outside the frosted glass of his private office.

"Absolutely not."

"Fine." Julian didn't even bother looking up from the documents on his desk. His voice was pure ice. "Hand your resignation letter to HR."

A dark, incredulous laugh ripped out of my throat. "You're seriously firing me just because I refuse to be your personal doormat?"

The tip of his fountain pen paused against the paper. He finally condescended to lift his head and lock eyes with me.

"I simply provided you with a choice." He crossed his long legs, his eyes dragging over me like he was appraising a cheap piece of merchandise with a clear price tag. "Don't tell me you actually think you have anything left that I could possibly want?"

The air hitched in my throat. I suddenly remembered Cleo last night, screaming herself hoarse at our landlord over a tiny rent hike.

I forced a stiff, sarcastic smile onto my face. "Your moral character is truly impeccable, Mr. CEO. I have absolutely nothing to fear."

Julian gave a microscopic nod. "Thank you. Shut the door on your way out."

"Oh, and make sure your desk chair is facing away from my office. I have no desire to look at your face."

I clamped my jaw shut. For the rest of the month, we existed as two ghosts orbiting the same sterile space, barely exchanging a single word.

Chapter 4

A week later, the company threw a mandatory team-building dinner. As the fresh meat in the office, I was the prime target for hazing and pressured to drink way past my limit.

"Come on, Juliet, finish it or we're docking your pay."

"Relax, if you pass out, we'll drag you home. We're all girls here, what are you scared of?" the manager coaxed with a sickeningly sweet smile.

Drowning in the relentless chorus of peer pressure, I tipped my head back and downed my final shot of the night. The room spun out of control, and I blacked out before my head even hit the table.

The next morning, I woke up drowning in the center of a massive king-sized bed.

Blinding sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows, stabbing at my retinas. I pushed myself upright. The heavy silk duvet slipped off my shoulders, revealing a plush, oversized hotel bathrobe wrapped tightly around my body. My brain stalled.

I swung my legs over the edge of the mattress and stumbled out of the bedroom.

In the expansive, sunlit living room, Julian sat on a white leather sofa, one long leg crossed casually over the other as he flipped through a financial newspaper. He was wearing the exact same white hotel robe.

Hearing my footsteps, he didn't even bother lifting his head, only lazily flicking his eyes up. "You're awake. Breakfast is on the table. Eat something, then go back to sleep."

Ice flooded my veins. The blood drained from my face. "Did we"

Julian tossed the newspaper onto the glass coffee table with a soft thud. He reached up, casually hooking a finger into the collar of his robe and pulling it to the side, exposing a vivid, unmistakable hickey branded into his collarbone. "Unfortunately for you, you were the one who initiated it last night."

My ears started ringing. The memories of last night were a terrifying black hole.

"That's impossible."

Julian slammed a thick, black-and-gold contract onto the glass coffee table. He tapped a long, unforgiving finger against the stark red thumbprint stamped onto the bottom line, his tone dripping with undeniable arrogance.

"Sign it. Be my exclusive mistress. A hundred grand a month. More than enough to plug up those rotting debts of yours."

"There's no way I put my print on this"

"Oh?" Julian let out a dark, low chuckle. "Are you sure about that?"

Meeting his intense, unflinching stare, my jaw worked, but my vocal cords were paralyzed. I couldn't force out a single syllable.

He ignored my suffocating panic. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a sleek digital voice recorder. "I accidentally recorded your little monologue last night. Tell me, Juliet, do you want to listen to your own filthy, pathetic thoughts?"

A tremor ripped through my spine. I felt like I'd been plunged into a vat of ice water.

A crushing wave of humiliation crashed over my head. Desiring a man who belonged to someone elseit was disgusting enough to harbor those thoughts in the darkest corners of my own mind. But to have them dragged out into the harsh light of day, weaponized as evidence against me I felt like a criminal standing on the gallows.

Julian lowered his gaze, casting dark shadows over his eyes, masking whatever storm was brewing underneath. "Lusting after an engaged man. Tsk. Juliet, what do you think would happen if I played this little recording for our old friends?"

I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles popped. My fingernails dug deep into my palms, breaking the skin. "Are you doing this just to punish me?"

"Yes." He suddenly lunged forward. A terrifying wave of pure alpha dominance suffocated the space between us as his hand clamped around my jaw, tilting my face up. A manic cocktail of burning possession and raw hatred exploded in his dark eyes.

"You threw me away like a piece of rotting garbage back then. Now, it's your turn to pay the price."

"You have two choices." His grip on my jaw tightened. "Either you honor the contract, or I broadcast this recording to the world."

The antique grandfather clock in the corner of the room ticked mercilessly. The rhythmic sound merged with my own erratic heartbeat, slamming against my eardrums like a battering ram.

My lips were cracked and bleeding. I stared blankly up at him. "Then broadcast it."

Under his freezing, lethal glare, I forced the words past the sandpaper in my throat. "Julian, I will not be the other woman."

Julian stared at me, truly studying my face, before a terrifying smirk slowly stretched across his lips. "Juliet, who the hell do you think you are?"

"Do you honestly believe you still have the right to choose?"

I found my clothes crumpled in a pathetic heap on the bathroom floor. Julian's suit, meanwhile, hung perfectly pressed and immaculate on the wooden valet stand by the door. The visual contrast was a violent slap in the face.

The stark reminder of our absolute class divide burned my eyes. I let out a long, shuddering breath, silently stripped off the luxury robe, pulled on my wrinkled clothes, and walked out of the hotel.

Chapter 5

Cleo's voice came through the phone speaker, tight and brittle. "Juliet, they want five hundred grand."

The sky above was a heavy, suffocating sheet of gray. Not a single ray of sunlight pierced through the gloom.

Cleo's bank account was already drained from paying my endless medical bills, and my own savings were a pathetic joke.

"They said if we don't pay up, they'll leak everything to the public. And they'll never tell you where they buried your mother's ashes or where her belongings are."

"I'll ask for an advance on my salary. I can borrow the rest. I should have it all together by next month."

"Okay."

My thumb hovered over the screen. After a suffocating beat of hesitation, I tapped a number. The line rang endlessly before a click finally echoed in my ear.

"Juliet. Is everything alright?"

I exhaled a shaky breath, watching it plume in the frigid air. "Dr. Miles, I'm so sorry to bother you, I"

Chaos bled through the receiverthe frantic background noise of a busy hospital ward. I heard his swift footsteps echoing down a hall until the noise finally cut off, replaced by absolute quiet. "Are you in trouble?" His voice was perfectly steady, anchoring my spiraling panic.

I sucked in a sharp breath. "Can you lend me four hundred grand?"

It was the first time in my life I'd ever begged someone for money. The second the words left my mouth, a sickening, burning flush clawed up my neck and incinerated my face.

A blare of noise erupted on his end. "Dr. Miles, emergency surgery. Now."

"Understood."

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the inevitable dial tone. I didn't expect him to actually say yes. Right as the line was about to sever, Miles dropped a single, absolute sentence.

"Text me your account number. I'll wire it before the end of the day."

Click.

The sky above was still that same dead, suffocating gray. But the freezing dial tone humming against my ear suddenly didn't feel so cold anymore.

Late that evening, my manager's knuckles rapped hard against my desk. "Client dinner tonight. You're coming."

Just a few hours ago, I had practically begged him for a month's salary advance. Combined with Miles's wire transfer and my pathetic remaining savings, I had finally scraped together the five hundred grand.

I pushed open the heavy mahogany doors of the VIP dining room and immediately froze.

Julian was there. His tall, imposing frame dominated the space, effortlessly commanding the room as he networked with the executives. The blinding light from the crystal chandelier hit the sharp, ruthless angles of his jawline.

The manager planted a hand on my spine and shoved me forward. Every pair of eyes in the room locked onto me.

"Mr. CEO, is she one of yours?" an executive asked.

Julian dragged his dark gaze over me, completely unbothered. A faint smirk tugged at his lips. "Yeah. Fresh meat."

"What kind of fresh meat gets a personal escort from the boss himself? Not bad to look at, either."

The men laughed, taking their seats around the massive table. The manager forcibly shoved me into the empty chair directly beside Julian. He leaned in, his breath hot against my ear. "Don't be stupid tonight. When the shots come out, you take the hit."

The executives exchanged loaded glances. "So, Julian," one of them drawled. "Can your new girl handle her liquor, or is she going to tap out?"

Before Julian could even open his mouth, my manager practically leaped out of his seat. "She can drink! Oh, she can drink." He slid a massive crystal glass of high-proof liquor directly in front of me. "Show them. First toast."

Julian didn't say a word. He just sat back, a terrifying smile playing on his lips, his long index finger tapping a slow, rhythmic beat against the mahogany wood.

I locked my jaw, grabbed the heavy glass, and threw the burning liquid down my throat in one violent gulp.

The raw alcohol shredded down my esophagus. It hit my empty stomach like a lit match dropped into a powder keg, detonating in a blinding flash of agony.

The table erupted in cheers, practically frothing at the mouth to pour me another. Julian's deep baritone suddenly sliced through the noise. "Where were we in the negotiations? Let's get back to it."

The energy in the room hit a fever pitch. Executive after executive tried to push top-shelf liquor onto Julian to earn his favor. He flawlessly deflected every single shot, claiming a bad stomach, and didn't let a single drop touch his lips.

So, the manager shoved every single one of those rejected glasses directly into my hands.

By the end of the night, my vision was swimming in black spots. I shoved my chair back and stumbled blindly out to the restroom.

I slammed the faucet all the way open. The icy water rushed out as I gripped the edges of the porcelain sink, my body convulsing with dry heaves. My hair clip snapped, sending my dark hair falling directly into the basin. The freezing water instantly soaked the strands, plastering them to my sweaty cheeks.

I forced my trembling fingers to type out a quick text to Cleo. The second I hit send, the last drop of adrenaline bled out of my veins. I collapsed forward, resting my heavy forehead against the freezing marble vanity. I squeezed my eyes shut, my chest heaving with ragged, suffocating gasps.

Slow, deliberate footsteps echoed from the hallway.

Chapter 6

The door pushed open.

I thought it was just another woman coming in to use the restroom. Instead, Julian's smooth, chillingly calm voice echoed off the tiles. "Tapping out already?"

I summoned every last ounce of my strength, gripping the porcelain edge to force myself upright. I stumbled, swaying unsteadily as I tried to brush past his towering frame.

He didn't even flinch. His hand clamped around my upper arm like a steel vice, violently dragging me back. His massive, searing palm slid to the nape of my neck, his thumb pressing right against my pulse point. The contact was blistering hot.

"Let me go." The raw stomach acid had shredded my throat; forcing out even a single syllable felt like swallowing broken glass.

Julian effortlessly dragged me in front of the massive vanity mirror. He forced me to face the glass, his fingers gripping my jaw and tilting my head up. A dark, dangerous smirk curled his lips. "Take a good look at yourself. You walk out there looking like this, and you aren't afraid someone with ulterior motives might set their sights on you?"

The woman staring back at me in the mirror had glazed, glassy eyes and a heavy, feverish flush burning across her cheeks. Damp strands of hair stuck to my neck, and the collar of my silk blouse had slipped off my shoulder. Through the reflection, Julian's pitch-black gaze dragged over my exposed skin, shameless, consuming every inch of me like a predator cornering its prey.

I squeezed my eyes shut, a violent tremor racking my spine. "Is there anyone in that room with worse motives than you?"

Julian let out a low, rough chuckle. He lowered his head, his lips brushing directly against the shell of my ear, sending a terrifying shiver down my spine. "Come home with me tonight. Yeah?"

"Get out" The words hadn't even fully left my mouth before he brutally slammed my back against the freezing marble counter.

He was an animal off his leash. He crushed his mouth over mine with a savage, punishing bite, plundering every last ounce of oxygen from my lungs.

The toxic cocktail of high-proof alcohol and raw adrenaline turned the blood in my veins into boiling magma. My vision blurred into meaningless smears of light. The rhythmic drip of the faucet echoed as if submerged underwater, each drop hitting my eardrums like corrosive acid. A suffocating, paralyzing agony crushed my chest.

A cold sweat broke out across my skin. My trembling hands weakly shoved at his immovable chest. I was dragged back down into the pitch-black abyss of those hellish years. Staring blankly at a vibrant, blinding world that I had been exiled from.

"Julian, please just let me go." I was free-falling in silence, smashing directly into the concrete bottom of a pitch-black well.

I knew my body was shattering. But I couldn't feel the pain anymore. Numbness swallowed me whole.

"Juliet!" Julian's voice cracked. For the first time in six years, the raw, murderous hatred was gone from his eyes.

He was terrified. The raw panic distorting his face made my vision swim. I couldn't even tell if I was staring at the ruthless billionaire he was today, or the desperate boy who used to love me