Dumped My Cheating Ex. Now I'm Sleeping Next to a Billionaire CEO novel Chapter 906

Emmy didn’t say a word.

She tossed the stick into the fire, watching a few sparks pop and fade in the night. Holding her hands out to the flames, she let the warmth soak in, but nothing could thaw the memories she kept locked away. She wasn’t about to spill her secrets to someone she barely knew—the days of being locked up, lied to, treated like she was nothing more than a pretty pet trapped in a cage. Even more than that, she didn’t want to admit that Dean’s suffocating control had crushed her until she broke. That the only way out was to run.

When James saw she wasn’t going to answer, something like regret flickered in his eyes. He didn’t press her.

Instead, his eyes landed on her wrist as she reached closer to the fire. Her sleeve had slipped back just a bit. A long, angry pink scar slashed across the pale skin of her wrist, impossible to miss.

James’s eyes went wide. For a split second, he froze, like all the blood in his body turned to ice.

He suddenly leaned in and grabbed her wrist, holding it tight.

“What happened to you?”

His voice shook with anger and something else—something raw and hurting.

Emmy flinched, startled. She yanked her hand back and hid it in her sleeve.

“It’s nothing,” she muttered, eyes darting away. Her whole body tensed, like she was ready to bolt.

James stared at her, breathing hard. His eyes were rimmed red, fixed on the spot where she’d hidden her hand.

That scar was deep and jagged—the kind left by someone who tried to end it all.

He remembered how Emmy used to cry even after a vaccine shot. What could have broken her so badly that she’d hurt herself like that?

Dean. That monster.

What the hell did he do to her?

Rage boiled up inside James, so strong it almost made him see red.

Emmy seemed to sense the storm coming off him, and she glanced over, fear flickering in her eyes.

James caught her looking and quickly turned away.

He didn’t want her to see his eyes shining with tears.

She hugged her knees to her chest and leaned back against the stone wall. Her eyelids drooped.

Ever since she’d escaped Dean, she’d been like a bird with nowhere to land—never getting a full night’s rest. She’d slept by trash piles, in damp caves, always tense and afraid. Afraid of being found. Afraid of waking up to Dean’s face.

But now, with James breathing quietly beside her, something shifted.

For the first time in forever, she felt safe. Like as long as he was here, nothing could hurt her.

That feeling ran so deep she didn’t even have time to think. Her head dropped to the side and she slid right into sleep.

James listened to her slow, steady breaths before he let himself look at her again.

He watched her sleep, his face softening with a tenderness he’d never known he had.

Once he was sure she was out, he moved away a little, just enough so she wouldn’t smell the blood.

He peeled off the soaked bandage from his leg. The wound was ugly, the skin split and raw. The bullet was still lodged deep, and every tiny movement sent a spike of pain through him.