Chapter 681
The moment Sienna stepped out of the patriarch’s room and let go of the door handle p>
A figure at the top of the stairs caught her peripheral vision.
Jarred was standing at the end of the corridor, leaning heavily against the wall.
One hand was shoved into his pocket, the other hanging limply at his side.
The ambient light cast half his face in deep shadow, while the other half was pale as frost.
His expression couldn’t exactly be called furious, but the darkness brewing in his eyes was far heavier than rage.
It was obvious he had been standing there for a while.
He didn’t need to say a word for Sienna to understand instantly.
He already knew everything that had just unfolded inside that room.
One of the manor’s servants must have tipped him off.
He knew Marcus had convinced her to stay.
Sienna’s steps faltered, but only for a fraction of a second.
Gripping her bag, she kept walking straight ahead, refusing to acknowledge him.
The moment she tried to walk past him, Jarred pulled his hand from his pocket and planted it firmly against the wall, cutting off her path entirely.
He raised his other arm, pressing it against the opposite wall.
He had effectively caged her in an impossibly tight space.
Those dark eyes bore into hers, heavy and unrelenting.
The cool, calculating control he usually wielded with such ease was cracking at the seams.
His Adam’s apple bobbed heavily as a suffocating wave of jealousy surged out of him, completely out of his control.
“You agreed to stay p>
It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. His voice was devastatingly low, tinged with a raw, barely detectable hoarseness.
Sienna stopped.
Standing perfectly still, she tilted her head up slightly to look at him.
They were close enough that she could clearly see the faint shadow of stubble along his jawline, and the undeniable, bloodshot redness burning at the corners of his eyes.
Not a single ripple of emotion crossed Sienna’s face. She merely turned her body slightly.
She attempted to bypass him and keep walking, entirely unwilling to get dragged into this.
“Get out of my way p>
“Why Marcus p>
Jarred didn’t back down. Blocking her path, he stared at her intensely, unable to hide the bitter burt and raging jealousy in his eyes.
He finally voiced the question tearing him apart.
“When I begged you, you refused to give me even an inch of mercy.
“I swallowed every ounce of my pride, begged you on the basis of all the years we shared, and you shot me down instantly p>
His voice dripped with a self-deprecating bitterness, his chest tight as if an invisible hand were crushing his heart.
“You and I have so much history together, yet you refused to budge an inch.
“Marcus barely has a personal relationship with you, but after a single conversation, you agree to stay.
“Sienna, in your eyes, were those years we spent together really that worthless p>
He looked furious, but upon closer inspection, his fingertips were trembling slightly.
The anger was just a brittle shell; underneath, it was nothing but pathetic, agonizing vulnerability.
He hadn’t come here to fight. He just needed an answer—a reason that could somehow make sense to him.
His mind couldn’t process it, couldn’t untangle this suffocating knot.
Anyone else might have been swayed by the raw pain in his words.
But Sienna knew him too well, and she had completely severed herself from that relationship long ago.
She looked up at him, her gaze icy. “Jarred, you’re confusing two very different things.
“I didn’t stay for Marcus, nor did I stay because he holds some special place in my heart.
“I stayed because I agreed to a contract p>
Jarred’s brow remained tightly knitted. “What contract p>
Sienna crossed her arms over her chest, her tone utterly detached. “When you begged me to stay earlier, you tried to gaslight me using our broken relationship.
“You wanted me to blindly trap myself in the Sterlings’ toxic mess indefinitely.
“You tried to use my freedom as a bargaining chip, all to satisfy your own selfish, hidden agenda p>
Those last few words caused the previously composed man’s eyes to darken significantly.
Sienna narrowed her eyes, her gaze crashing straight into his.
“Marcus, on the other hand, didn’t play any emotional cards with me. He recognized exactly what was terrified of, and he offered me a hard thirty-day limit.