Chapter 103 - 0103: I’ll Kill You Before I Let You Touch Her

Chapter 103: Chapter 0103: I’ll Kill You Before I Let You Touch Her

Graham’s Point Of View

The mere thought felt like a physical blade turning in my stomach. But Elena? My Elena? The woman who had stood on stage tonight in her flawless emerald dress, giving that icy, brilliant speech about market risk and corporate vision?

She was too measured. Too careful. Too refined. She didn’t invite storms. She managed them. I had built half my faith in the world on that certainty, and I wasn’t ready to let it crack.

What if Jaxx showing up wasn’t about an invitation at all? What if he knew something about her, about us, that I didn’t?

The thought made hot bile rise violently in my throat. He had that terrifying way of moving... an apex predator who had smelled the subtle scent of decay and blood where I hadn’t even known a wound existed. Jaxx didn’t make chaos just for sport.

He was a master tactician. He found the precise cracks people tried hardest to hide and drove iron wedges into them. And I had no idea, sitting there bleeding in my car, just how many cracks he had already found in mine.

I started the car with a trembling keyless push. The engine’s deep, refined grumble was a small, hollow comfort in the quiet cabin. The automatic climate control kicked in, blowing warm air that instantly fogged up the cold glass.

I pressed a shaky hand to my face again, my fingers gingerly touching the split, sticky skin over my eye, feeling the throbbing warmth of my own spilled blood.

Weak, a mocking inner voice whispered from the dark corners of my mind. Weak for letting your guard down. Weak for letting a bastard like Jaxx crawl into your orbit and take your pride. Weak for failing to protect what’s yours.

Still, the unanswered questions circled my skull like starving crows, pecking, clawing, dragging me into a pit of sheer paranoia I couldn’t climb out of. Why come now? Why attend a legitimate corporate gala? Why rattle his sabers like a scavenger on a night that was supposed to solidify the Sinclair empire?

I put the car in drive and pulled out slowly, letting the golden, warm glow of the banquet hall lights slip past my side window like a film I desperately wanted to burn.

"Think, Graham," I muttered aloud to myself, my voice jagged, weak, and unrecognizable in the quiet luxury of the car.

I pressed my palm flat against the foggy side glass and stared into my own terrified reflection until the headlights of oncoming traffic made the image shiver. Then I whispered, barely audible, the same sickening thought that had been burning through my brain all night:

"What the hell am I not seeing?"

Something wasn’t right. Something about Jaxx, about the dark, predatory promise in his eyes, about the way Elena had paused near the courtyard earlier, about the way he spoke her name like he’d already tasted it on his tongue.

Each fragment lodged itself under my skin like a splinter I couldn’t reach, and the harder I tried to piece them together, the more the picture resembled a betrayal I wasn’t ready to face.

By the time I pulled into the iron gates of my estate, the grand, multi-million-dollar house loomed against the stormy sky like a dark, waiting beast. The exterior floods and interior lights were all on, every damn bulb burning brightly through the high windows. My stomach twisted into a tight, agonizing knot.

I knew she’d be waiting.

The moment I unlocked the massive mahogany front door and stepped into the marble foyer, Lilian rushed toward me from the living room. She was wearing a satin robe, her hands instinctively cradling her noticeably swollen belly. Her long hair was loose and messy, her flushed face showing she had been pacing the floors for hours.

"Babe, where the hell have you been?!" she demanded instantly, her voice sharp, high-pitched, and carrying that grating, demanding edge I had grown to absolutely despise over the last few months. "You just suddenly vanished from the house! You didn’t answer my texts! Where did you go?!"

I closed my eyes briefly, my jaw tight as a blinding headache throbbed behind my temples. I pinched the bridge of my nose, fighting the urge to scream. Not again. Not tonight. Dear God, not tonight.

My entire body ached with physical trauma and bone-deep exhaustion; I didn’t have the mental capacity for another round of her endless, suffocating insecurity.

When I didn’t answer immediately and kept my head down, she let out a sharp gasp and rushed forward, her hands flying up to touch my face.

"Graham!"

Her hands froze. Her eyes widened into circles of absolute horror as she took in the disaster of my appearance.

"What happened to your face?! Oh my God! Who did this to you? You’re covered in blood!"

I jerked my head back violently, pulling away from her touch as my jaw locked tight. "It’s nothing," I snapped, my voice harsh and cold. "Just a minor accident in the parking lot."

Lilian’s eyes narrowed instantly, the dramatic panic vanishing, replaced by a toxic, dark cloud of suspicion. She folded her arms over her chest, stepping right into my path.

"Don’t lie to me, Graham," she hissed, her voice dropping into a dangerous sneer. "Don’t you dare tell me you went to her event. You went to Elena’s gala, didn’t you?!"

My complete, sullen silence was more than enough of an answer.

Lilian’s voice cracked into a sharp, hysterical shriek that echoed off the high marble ceiling of the foyer.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Graham?! What is wrong with your head?!" she screamed, tears of rage springing to her eyes as she gestured wildly at herself. "I am standing right here! I am carrying your child... your actual heir! And you’re still sneaking out like a desperate puppy, clinging to a cold, sterile woman who can’t even give you a family!"

She took an aggressive step closer, thrusting her finger toward my chest.

"You promised me! You swore when I moved into this house that you’d file the divorce papers as soon as the ink was dry on the estate transfer! Why is she still your wife?! Why are you still obsessed with her?!"

The dangerous, explosive fury that Jaxx had lit inside me suddenly snapped like a leather whip. All the rage, the humiliation, the sheer violence I hadn’t been able to unleash on my brother suddenly found a target.

I reached out, my hand shooting forward like an iron vice, and grabbed Lilian by the wrist. I yanked her close, so close her breath hitched in shock, and brought my battered, blood-stained face inches from hers.

My voice came out low, raspy, and utterly venomous.

"You living in this house does not give you the right to speak her name," I growled, my grip tightening on her wrist until she winced. "And it sure as hell doesn’t give you the right to insult my wife."

Lilian froze for a fraction of a second, shocked by the terrifying darkness in my eyes. But then her face contorted, and she let out a bitter, mocking scoff, her lips curling into pure scorn.

"Your wife?" she mocked, her voice dripping with venomous sarcasm as she stared right into my eyes. "Oh, that’s rich, Graham! That’s so fucking noble of you! You knew exactly what you were doing when you snuck into my bed six months ago! You knew what you were doing every time you lied to her face and spent the night at my apartment! Don’t you dare try to play the holy, devoted husband now just because your face got smashed in!"

Her words were like jagged glass dragging across open wounds. Every single syllable dug deep under my skin, exposing the rotten, hypocritical core of everything I had done.

I shoved her away roughly, releasing her wrist so fast she stumbled back a step against the entry table.

I couldn’t stand the sight of her. I couldn’t stand the smell of her perfume. I couldn’t stand another single second of listening to her voice remind me of the pathetic choices I had made.

Without uttering another word, I turned on my heel and headed for the grand staircase, taking the steps two at a time, leaving her shouting hysterically and seething in the empty, echoing hallway below.

"Graham! Don’t you walk away from me! Graham!"

I slammed the heavy double doors of the master bedroom shut behind me, locking them with a sharp turn of the deadbolt, drowning out her muffled screams.

The silence of the massive room rushed in, cold and suffocating. The air felt heavy, as if the walls themselves were closing in to crush me. My chest burned with every ragged breath I drew, my mind spinning in wild, chaotic, terrifying loops.

I stumbled over to the floor-to-ceiling glass window overlooking the dark, rain-soaked gardens. I dragged both hands through my hair, wincing as my fingers scraped over the swollen contusions on my scalp, and stared out into the black night.

Jaxx.

That goddamn, arrogant bastard.

He actually thought he could just stroll out of the shadows, walk right into Elena’s life, exploit the gaping, bloody cracks I had left in our marriage, and take what was mine? He thought he could beat me into the dirt and then walk away with the only woman who had ever truly given my life any semblance of order?

My heart twisted violently inside my chest... a sickening, suffocating mixture of rage, deep-seated regret, and a dark, possessive territorial pull I had tried so hard to deny.

I had lied to myself for months. I had told myself I didn’t care about Elena anymore. I had convinced myself that our marriage was just a business arrangement, that I had ruined it beyond repair with my own hands, and that there was no point in looking back. I had brought Lilian into my bed to prove to myself that I was in control.

But the mere thought of Elena... my proud, brilliant, beautiful Elena... looking at Jaxx? Feeling his hands on her? Letting that monster touch what belonged to me?

No.

The word echoed in my mind like a war cry. No, no, NO! I couldn’t stomach it. It would destroy me faster than any bullet Jaxx could ever fire.

She was mine. She was my wife. She was the anchor I had foolishly cast aside, but she was still mine. No matter how many mistakes I had made, no matter how far I had fallen into the gutter, there was no power on this earth that would make me stand by and watch Jaxx take her.

I wasn’t going to lose Elena to a maniac. I wasn’t going to let that bastard win the ultimate prize.

I leaned forward, pressing my forehead against the cold glass of the window, gripping the wooden edge of the dresser beneath it until my knuckles turned stark white and screamed in protest. I forced the words out through my bloody, clenched teeth... a dark, desperate vow carved into the stone of my soul.

"Whatever sick, twisted game you think you’re playing, Jaxx..." I whispered into the dark glass, my eyes burning with a terrifying, unhinged resolve. "...I’m going to beat you to it. I will kill you before I let you touch her."