Below, Hayes got out of his car and looked up.

He could clearly see Julian calling for help.

And Lucian beside him, looking like death itself.

“Don’t do anything stupid!”

Hayes grabbed a loudspeaker.

“Whatever happened between you and Stella, you can’t take it out on her husband. Julian is innocent. If you kill him, I swear you won’t walk away from this.”

Even now, he saw Julian as a victim’s grieving husband.

He still believed the performance.

With the police below, Julian’s fear disappeared.

He turned toward Lucian and smiled provocatively.

“Are you really going to kill me in front of them?”

He stepped closer and lowered his voice.

“You’re pathetic. Crawling around in the gutter, losing your mind over Stella. You can keep coming after me. Who’s going to believe you?”

Lucian’s hand closed into a fist.

His knuckles stretched white beneath the skin.

Julian’s smile widened.

His eyes remained innocently open.

“You know how much she loved me. If I wanted her heart, all I had to do was ask.”

He took out his phone.

“I have a video from my birthday. Since you miss her so much, I’ll let you watch.”

I frowned.

I remembered that birthday.

Some of the things I had said.

He had recorded them.

But there was nothing wrong with them.

His lock screen showed the photograph from our marriage registration.

In it, I was looking up at him. Only my profile was visible, but the love in my eyes nearly spilled off the screen.

I could barely look.

I had written my obsession across my face.

Embarrassed, I glanced at Lucian.

His lashes were lowered, hiding his eyes.

The air around him grew heavier.

Julian opened the recording.

On-screen, he looked at his cake and smiled sadly.

“You know how bad my heart is, Stella. I may not have another birthday.”

I appeared in the frame and covered his mouth.

“Don’t say that. I’ll find a donor. There has to be a way. I don’t care what it costs, as long as you live.”

He lowered my hand and stroked my face.

“Nobody could love me more than you do. I must have saved the world in my last life to deserve you in this one.”

I covered his hand with mine.

“I’m the lucky one. As long as you’re healthy and happy, I’ll do anything.”

“Anything?”

His tone turned half-playful.

“What if Lucian’s heart were compatible? Would you take it for me?”

Then my own voice answered, clear and cruel.

“Yes. Trading that awful man’s life for yours would be worth it.”

No.

I hadn’t said that.

He had edited it.

Cut it apart and stitched together something else.

“Don’t believe him!”

I rushed to Lucian’s ear.

“It’s altered. I never said that.”

I remembered my actual answer perfectly.

I had hesitated.

Then told Julian the truth.

“If you needed my heart, I’d give it without hesitation. My life is yours. But Lucian, however much I dislike him, is an innocent person. I can’t trade his life for yours.”

“Did you hear?” Julian smiled with contemptuous pity. “Even if I needed your heart, she’d cut it out for me. You matter less to her than a stray dog. Poor thing.”

He kept pushing.

“No. It isn’t true.”

Tears ran down my face.

I rose onto my toes and tried desperately to cover Lucian’s ears.

“Don’t listen to him.”

Hayes and his officers had reached the roof.

Lucian’s men blocked the entrance.

And I finally saw Julian’s plan.

He wanted Lucian to lose control in front of Hayes.

Shoot him.

Attack him.

Give the police everything they needed.