Chapter 158
“He belongs to Chloe p>
“Stop,” I say, venom curdling into my throat. “Don’t use her as your excuse. We both know, you just want Noah all to yourself p>
“So what?” she asks, her expression turning dark. “He is mine. I deserve him, but you don’t deserve anything. You’re worthless. Always was, always will be p>
I grit my teeth against her bitter words. Because that’s all they are, words from a bitter afraid woman.
“Get out of my room!” I snap, tired of her bullshit.
“Soon you’ll see what I can do,” Brook says, and there’s something dark and satisfied curling at the edges of her sentence. “You’ll regret ever crossing me p>
My pulse thrums in my neck. “What can you possibly do that you haven’t already tried?” I ask, testing her.
She laughs then, a sound devoid of humor. Her laugh turns the room colder. “You have no idea,” she murmurs. The words are casual and terrible, like someone announcing the weather. “Just wait p>
Her smugness cracks some humane thing in me and anger flares, bright and hot.
“You did something to my brakes,” I hear myself say before I can weigh it. The accusation roars out of my mouth before I can stop it. “You tampered with my car. You tried to kill me p>
She doesn’t deny it, instead she smile wickedly. “It’s a shame you and the bastard didn’t die,” she says too easily. It’s like she’s been waiting for the moment to let cruelty slip free.
The world narrows and then explodes, into tiny fragments pieces.
I raise my hand slap her. The sound of my palm against her face is loud. Brook staggers and when she looks up, blood rushes out of her nose. She touches it with trembling fingers, eyes wide as if she can’t believe I’d hit her.
“Did you just slap me?” she hisses completely furious.
“If you call my baby a bastard again,” I say, voice low, but thrumming with anger, “I’ll do more than slap you p>
Brook’s laugh comes out squeezed She lifts her head, nostrils flaring. “Only I have the right to bear Noah’s children p>
The words hang there, and I just stare at her. How did she get so delusional? So selfish? This isn’t just about me? it’s about any woman that dares to take Noah from her.
She actually believes that she alone deserves to have Noah and that makes her fucking dangerous.
She’s like Chloe, only difference is that while Chloe used tricks to push other girls away from Noah, Brook will literally take out anyone who stands in her way.
“Your bastard deserves to die” she snarls and something inside me snaps.
An animal sound, a raw throat–wrench of grief and fury. I slap her again, harder this time. Blood trickles faster, and she staggers backward, one hand pressed to her nose.
“You will not threaten my baby,” I say. My voice is a promise carved into steel. “Have Noah to yourself, I don’t fucking care, but if you ever come at my baby, I’ll burry you so deep it’ll take them years to dig out your disgusting corpse p>
Her face drains of color, but she doesn’t speak. But then she squares her jaw and, with a tone that drips with false civility, says, “Fine. Stay. But remember, you just picked a war with me p>
She starts to turn, the hem of her blouse catching as if she’s about to flee the scene, but at the doorway she pauses. Her head tilts, and the corner of her mouth curls into an expression that strips the room bare.
“You think you’re brave now,” she says. “but you don’t know what I am capable, Sierra. You can’t win against me p>
With those final words, she leaves, slamming the door behind her with a finality. My hands are still shaking, and the black card at my feet seems to pulse with a life of its own. I bend to pick it up, my fingers hovering over the embossed gold of my name.
A slow, cold certainty settles over me: this was not an empty threat. Brook promised I’d regret it. And now I have the proof in my hand.
She may think she has all the cards, but she underestimates the length a mother would go to protect her unborn child. Just because I let her walk all over me before doesn’t mean I’m weak. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I let her win against me. I’m done playing nice.