CHAPTER 8
I walked out of the room with a small smile on my face, but the murmurs inside still carried faintly down the hallway. My heels clicked against the polished marble floor as I exhaled slowly, every step calculated and steady.
I’d won this round.
But then the air shifted behind me, and I could hear fast, angry footsteps.
“Jada!”
I didn’t have to turn to know the voice. It was Matt.
I stopped walking but didn’t face him. “You should be in there cleaning up your mess, not chasing after me.”
He came around in front of me, blocking my path like a wall. His face was flushed red, his tie tugged loose like he’d torn it in frustration. He was sweating through his perfect suit, rage simmering in every line of his body.
“What the hell do you mean you’re married?”
I arched a brow, calm, and cool. “I meant exactly what you heard.”
His laugh was sharp, disbelieving. “No. No, you’re bluffing. This is just another one of your games. You’re just trying to deceive the board.” He leaned closer, his voice a low growl. “You think you can humiliate me like that in front of them? In front of the entire world?” “Humiliation isn’t my specialty,” I replied, my tone slicing through his fury. “That’s yours. Or dic you forget the part where you paraded my cousin around like a trophy while I was still wearing your ring?”
Matt’s face twisted, veins bulging in his neck. “You married Asher Galanis? That piece of trash? The same bastard who tried to take you from me all those years ago? You married him?”
I tilted my head. “Careful, Matt. You’re talking about my husband here.”
The word husband seemed to split him open. He laughed again, but the sound was broken, like a rabid dog.
“Is this some kind of sick game? Have you been sleeping with him this whole time? Have you been cheating on me? I should have known it!” he spat, his voice rising to an almost hysterical pitch. “All this time, you’ve been-”
“Cheating?” My laugh was sharp, bitter. “Tell me, Matt, when exactly was I supposed to be cheating? Before or after you slept with my cousin in my own bedroom? Before or after you plotted with my uncle to steal everything my father left me? Or was it after you left me alone on an island to die!?”
I stepped closer, my smile razor-thin. “Don’t flatter yourself. I never owed you loyalty, Matt. You made sure of that when you crawled into my cousin’s bed. You don’t get to cry betrayal now.”
I smiled again, though my eyes were cold. “I don’t need to defend myself to you. But let’s make one thing clear, Matt: the only person in this equation who’s been whoring themselves around is you.”
His hand suddenly shot out, fingers clamping around my wrist. He shook me once, hard. “You’re
12:12 pm A
lying. Tell me you’re lying!”
I didn’t flinch. I only raised my chin, glaring down at him like he was already beneath me. “Let go.”
Instead, he grabbed both my shoulders suddenly, shaking me hard enough to rattle my teeth. “You don’t get to do this to me! You don’t get to humiliate me and walk away like I’m nothing-” The sting made me flinch, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of fear. I tilted my chin higher, staring him dead in the eye. “Get your hands off me, Matt. Before you regret it.”
And then-
“It’s funny,” a voice drawled behind us, smooth and dangerous. “She just said the same thing I was thinking.”
Matt instantly froze.
We both turned at the same time.
Asher stepped out from the elevator like he owned the building, his black three piece suit tailored to perfection. His presence filled the hallway like an overpowering force. His eyes, sharp and unyielding, zeroed in on Matt’s hand on me.
“Get your hands off my wife.”
It wasn’t a request. It was an order.
Matt sneered. “Wife? You can’t be serious.”
He didn’t get another word out after that.
Asher’s fist connected with his jaw, the crack echoing down the hallway. Matt’s neck snapped sideways. His body crashed into the wall before he stumbled forward with blood spilled at the corner of his lip.
“Touch her again,” Asher said, low and dangerous, “and I’ll make sure you don’t have hands left to touch anyone with.”
Matt’s eyes blazed with fury as he wiped the blood with the back of his hand. “You think this changes anything? You think marrying him makes you untouchable, Jada? You’ll come back. You always come back.”
“No Matt,” I said simply. “Not this time.”
Asher stepped between us fully, his broad frame shielding me, his voice calm but deadly. “She’s not yours to lose, Bennett. She never was.’
Whispers drifted from the hallway behind us. Assistants, a few late board members, Janitors, everyone was watching, wide-eyed with their phones out, recording everything. One of the assistants muttered, “Oh my God, he’s really her husband.”
Perfect. The story would spread faster than wildfire.
Matt saw them too, and his humiliation turned into rage. He shoved past us, storming off with a snarl, but not before hissing one last line: “This isn’t over.”
I exhaled slowly, my pulse finally slowing, and Asher’s hand found mine.
“It’s only just beginning,” I whispered back, not to Matt, but to myself.
Asher bent so only I could hear his words. His hand brushed mine, strong, steady and grounding.
CHAPTER 8
213
38.3%
Bay
12:12 pm
“Are you alright?”
I nodded once, though my voice was quiet. “I’ve never been better.”
His lips curved into the faintest smile, but his eyes stayed hard, watching every movement in the corridor as though expecting Matt to lunge back at us.
Asher’s grip tightened reassuringly, and together we walked away, leaving a thousand curious eyes and the blood stained hallway behind.
12:12 pm D
