The Temporary Boyfriend

Chapter 167: The truth I

"Do you want to know the truth? Do you think you can handle it?"

Julian looked at her in the eyes for a while and nodded. "Yes Liv. I really want to know."

"This is going to sound absolutely crazy," Lyvana said, her voice trembling. "But I swear, it is the truth."

​Julian nodded, watching her closely.

​"On this exact date, a year from now, I married Mark," Lyvana said.

​Julian frowned, his brow furrowing in confusion. "I don’t understand. What do you mean by, a year from now?"

​Lyvana turned in her seat to face him. Her eyes were filled with a fear that looked very real.

"On this exact date, one year in the future, I got married to Mark. And then, someone shot me. I died, Julian."

​Julian went completely still.

The silence in the car became deafening. He didn’t say anything because he couldn’t make sense of her words. He didn’t know if she was talking about a dream, a premonition, or something else entirely.

​So, he stayed quiet and waited for her to continue.

"I woke up in the police station on 15th of April, the day before my engagement to Mark."

"Woke up?"

​She nodded quickly, her fingers twisting together in her lap. "Yes. I... I came back to life."

​As the words left her mouth, she wanted to take them back. It sounded like madness.

She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for him to tell her she was under a lot of stress. She even expected him to suggest she sees a psychiatrist.

But Julian said nothing, as though he were processing her words.

"You really believe this happened," he said quietly.

"It did happen," she whispered immediately. "I know how it sounds, but I remember everything." Her breathing became uneven. "I remember dying. I still have nightmares about it."

Julian remembered her nightmares she had, where she kept telling someone not to kill her. His jaw tightened slightly. freēwēbnovel.com

"And when you woke up," he said carefully, "you were back in the past?"

She nodded. "Two years in the past. At first I thought I had gone crazy. I thought maybe it was some horrible dream. But then things started happening exactly the way I remembered."

​"So, you’re saying you’ve seen the future?" he asked.

​"I’m saying I lived it," she corrected him.

Most people would have dismissed her immediately.

But Julian Blackwood was not most people. freeweɓnøvel.com

He had seen too many strange things in his life to completely reject the fear in her eyes.

"You said someone shot you," he said at last. "Do you know who?"

Lyvana’s face paled.

"No," she whispered. "I never saw their face."

​Julian looked at her for a long time. He didn’t ask for proof. He didn’t say she was crazy. Instead, he reached out and brushed a stray hair from her face.

​"I don’t know how that’s possible," he said. "But I know you. And I know you aren’t lying to me."​

Lyvana felt a sob catch in her throat. "You believe me?"

His hand moved from her hair to the back of her neck, pulling her gently toward him until their foreheads rested against each other.

​"I believe you," he whispered with conviction in his voice. He lifted himself up and looked into her eyes. "I don’t care if it defies every law of science. Your fear is real, and your nightmares are real. That is enough for me."

A single tear rolled down her cheek. She was beyond relieved.

​"Tell me everything," Julian said, trying to piece together what she was saying. "Tell me what happened the night of your wedding to Mark."

​Lyvana looked out the window, she didn’t like remembering that night, but she had to tell him.

"On our wedding night, Clarisse was in our apartment. She was pregnant with his child."

​"I gave him everything I had," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mix of sadness and anger. "I gave him my trust, my heart... I even gave him Aurora. And do you know what he did? He bought a penthouse for Clarisse. He put it in her name, but he paid for it with my money."

She explained everything that happened leading to her being shot.

"What about Andrew, how does he fit into all this?" he asked.

"When I came back, I tried to change some things. But the way I had it figured, what was supposed to happen, still managed to happen. Unless that fate is transferred to someone else."

"How do you mean?"

​​She explained some of the events she remembered, and how everything in her life had changed since she met him. Julian listened to her with an open mind.

​Then, she told him the rest. She told him about Jasmine, and about the wedding invitation she had found with Andrew’s name on it. She explained that the invitation was the reason she had asked Marco to investigate Andrew in the first place.

"I was afraid that if I didn’t marry Mark, fate would just pick someone else to take my place. I was afraid Jasmine would be the one to be be deceived as Mark did to me."

She looked down at her hands.

"I thought if I could find something bad about him," she whispered, "I could stop the wedding. I had to know if I was right."

"And you were right. Do you remember what happened the night of the kidnapping?"

She shook her head. "Not yet. My memories are coming in bits, eventually I will remember."

He nodded.

While the two lovers shared their secrets in the car, a very different truth was unfolding across town.

​Eleanor and the Chairman had just walked into the Grant mansion. Zara was already there, waiting for them. Her face was tense.

​"Can I talk to you privately for a minute?" Zara asked, looking directly at the Chairman.

​"Whatever you have to say, you can say it in front of Eleanor," he replied coldly.

Zara glanced at Eleanor, then back at the Chairman.