Chapter 9 — Pieces of Her
768 Words
Marina's breath came fast, her fingers trembling as she gripped the edge of the bookshelf.
“You need to leave,” she said, forcing her voice to steady.
Dominic didn’t move. His eyes searched hers, not with fury this time—but with something worse.
Pity.
“Marina—Juliette—whatever your name is, I know you’re scared,” he said, taking a slow step forward. “But if you’d just talk to me—”
“You think I want to talk to the man who sent me away like I was disposable?” she snapped. “Who handed me divorce papers like they were a thank-you card after three years of pretending?”
Dominic flinched. “You knew what the arrangement was.”
“And you never broke it either, did you?” she said bitterly. “Not once. No real touches. No real feelings. Not even when I—”
She stopped herself. Swallowed the words before they could betray her.
Not even when I was falling for you.
Outside the bookstore, Levi sat in the car, his fingers tapping against the steering wheel as he kept eyes on the front window. He didn’t like this. The past was dangerous—and so was Juliette, in all her forms.
He picked up the folder Dominic had dropped earlier. A grainy hospital photo was clipped to the corner. It was her, no doubt. But the file had a second page—a recent one. Taken at an ATM in West Virginia. Eight years ago. Hours before her supposed flight.
She never boarded the plane.
She never planned to.
He picked up his phone and called Dominic’s number.
It rang. And rang.
Straight to voicemail.
“Boss, I don’t like this,” he said. “She may not remember everything, but someone’s playing with us. Be careful.”
He hung up—and watched the door.
Waiting.
Marina dropped onto the couch behind the bookstore counter, hands over her face. Dominic had stepped out a few minutes ago, promising he would return later. “When you’re ready,” he said.
Was she?
Ready for what?
She looked at the flash drive again, still sticking out of her laptop.
Something had changed in her since watching that video. Like a c***k had formed in the wall of her mind. Now things were trickling through.
A candlelit dinner.
A silver necklace.
A kiss that wasn’t part of the deal.
A garden lit with fairy lights.
Dominic, whispering something she couldn’t quite remember into her ear.
She shuddered, not from fear—but from the ache of loss.
Who was she back then?
And why had she run?
She opened the folder on the flash drive again.
Another file had appeared.
Encrypted.
Her pulse jumped.
She hadn't noticed that before.
It asked for a password.
Her fingers hovered over the keyboard.
She typed the first thing that came to mind.
"Goodbye."
Access granted.
A dozen images flooded the screen—documents, photos, handwritten notes.
And in the middle of it all—
A scanned death certificate.
Her own.
Dominic stood outside the store, his mind spinning. He called Levi back.
“She remembers something,” he said. “She was about to say it, then shut down.”
“You shouldn’t be alone with her,” Levi replied. “You’re not thinking clearly.”
“I’m fine.”
“No, you’re obsessed. That’s different.”
Dominic hung up without responding.
Was it obsession? Or was it guilt?
He remembered the kiss. The last one.
The one she asked for before boarding a plane he thought would take her away forever.
He gave her that kiss. Slow. Real. Not part of the script.
Maybe that was the moment everything changed—for both of them.
But if that kiss meant something to her… why fake her death?
Unless she was protecting something.
Or someone.
Back in the bookstore, Marina stared at the death certificate.
Her real name: Juliette Ward.
Declared deceased: March 3rd, eight years ago.
Cause of death: Plane crash.
She checked the digital signature. It was from Dominic’s company’s legal team.
Had he… forged her death?
No. That wasn’t like him. Cold, maybe. Calculating, definitely. But murder?
No.
It had to be someone else. Someone trying to erase her.
She scrolled through more files.
Then her eyes caught a familiar name.
Dr. Cormack Lee.
The physician who had treated her at the West Virginia hospital.
Attached was a photo. She gasped.
He was shaking hands with a man in a navy suit.
Dominic’s father.
End of Chapter 9.
- Writer
