Page 135 of Jude

Why had I let a pathetic, spineless snake like Ignazio whisper venom into my ear?

I’d scorched my own earth, ready to destroy everything because my fragile, arrogant ego couldn’t handle the thought of being played.

I was staring at the green room floor in Valencia when Bishop approached me.

He sat on the couch beside me and shoved his tablet into my hands.

Dread coiled in my gut as I stared at the incriminating images onscreen, marked up in red at various points.

‘Saint finished the forensic analysis on the prints, brother,’ Bishop rasped. ‘He ran the graphics through a deep-pixel detector. The code identifies the structural layers where Sofia’s head was superimposed onto synthetic, computer-generated video stills. The background, the runway, the lighting elements, even the anatomy below her collarbone; it’s all fake, a perfect extortion trap.’

My head fell back onto the wall behind my bench, rocked by the confirmation.

‘Fuck, I suspected as much.’

Relief flooded me at first.

It wasn’t her.

Yet I’d let my ruthless paranoia and lethal pride blind me, tearing Sofia apart without a single piece of real evidence.

I weaponized her past against her, refused to believe her, and got her on the run once more. Making me just as monstrous as the syndicate brutes she spent years escaping.

In my reckless, unhinged fury, I drove my innocent wife away, and the shame of it cut deep now, a jagged blade twisting in my heart.

I destroyed our trust.

How the hell was I going to hunt her down and fix this?

Chapter 27

JUDE

The pixelated view of my parents’ living room in Vermont flickered into clarity on my laptop screen.

I leaned forward, my elbows resting on my knees as I rubbed my palms across my face.

My mom sat on the edge of her sofa, her eyes locked onto me with concern.

Kian reclined next to her, his arms crossed over his chest as I provided them with the update.

‘The forensic results came back from Bishop’s security contact,’ I muttered. ‘The photos are fake. Some high-end photo manipulation software superimposed her features onto an image of another woman. Sofia was telling the truth. I called her a liar to her face and gave her a verbal lashing so vicious she left me. I’m disgusted with myself.’

Mom leaned closer to the camera lens, a soft, pained expression softening her countenance.

‘Oh, Judah. I’m so sorry to hear, honey.’

I grimaced.

‘I let my ego dictate how to treat the person I promised to protect. I threw away the best part of my life because my stupid pride took a hit, Mom,’ I muttered, shaking my head as my failure burned in my chest. ‘I was so terrified of looking like a fool that I became a monster instead.’

‘Have you tried calling her?’ Maggie asked.

‘I did, but she’s blocked me so the calls didn’t go through. I also sent her texts, but they’ve been left on unread. How do I even begin to fix a catastrophe like this? I don’t even know where she is.’

Kian moved closer in the frame, his deep voice cutting through my spiraling thoughts.

‘Start by behaving like a husband who needs to earn back his right to walk beside her. Let’s hope your lawyer’s investigators find her, and when they do, you’ll stand in front of her, beg her forgiveness, and accept whatever terms she sets down. True love is about having the humility to kneel in the dirt and take responsibility for what you tore apart.’