LINDEN That sick son of a bitch! “Where are you going?” Estelle followed me out of the Gunner Room. “I need some air.” My blood was still boiling. I was still shaking with rage. I would have already broken his face if he was just in front of me. Father-in-law or not, I didn’t give a fuck. He couldn’t accept Estelle chose me over his pompous ass boy, and now he wanted to ruin us. “Hey.” She took my hand, linking it with hers. She knew I was shaking. “I should be the one furious. He ruined my company, but I don’t want to give him the satisfaction he craves, Gabriel. He thinks he succeeded. No, he did not. The company will be back on track now that I know who’s behind it. And you and I are still here, together.” We walked to my office, and I rubbed my temple, and it didn’t miss her sharp eyes. “You should go back to your office or go home. Take some time to rest.” “I have tons of work to do.” She pressed my hand against her lips. Estelle always calmed me down, but not this time. H
ESTELLE “Where have you been?” Linden just came home. His shoulders slumped. He looked like he just lost everything and still carried the entire world over his shoulder. We were supposed to have dinner, but he was late. Now, it was almost midnight, and he didn’t seem to care. He just passed by and ignored me. He went to the fridge, took bottled water, and drank it almost empty. “Baby, I know you’re still mad, and you didn’t like my decision, but you can’t—” “What do you know about mad and decisions?” he asked in a cold-blooded tone. Okay. He was beyond mad. “What do you want me to do? File a complaint against my father and humiliate him? Would that satisfy you?” “Family, right?” He snorted. “I watched you worry for days because of the damages he caused. I was with you the entire time because I was afraid you might miss a meal and not sleep well while pregnant, for God’s sake. Now that we know who the culprit is, you only want to cut the tail and not the head of the snake.” “W
ESTELLE “Gabriel?” But I met different eyes. I wiped my tears away. “Qamar.” I threw myself into him and hugged him. I badly needed someone to tell or lie to me that everything would be okay. “It’s okay.” He patted my back and said it was okay, but I didn’t feel okay. It still didn’t make things feel all right. “I’ll be fine.” I pulled away and went back to lying in the same position. Qamar pulled the blanket to cover me. “Do you need anything?” “No. He’s leaving me. I don’t know what happened, but something went terribly wrong. He’s not the man I know. He’s not my Gabriel. The man with me earlier is not my husband. He’s a different person.” “He’s hurting.” “Well, shit. He just broke my heart.” Tears kept pouring as I remembered what he just said. That was the worst thing he ever did to me. I didn’t even know if I could forgive him. *** I woke up feeling empty. His side of the bed was empty. My eyes were puffy. My chest hurt, but I was not giving up because I just lost a husb
LINDEN What the fuck did I just do? I felt fucking terrible. My eyes felt hot with inconvenient tears. I told her before my father that I would never hurt her, yet I did it in the worst way possible. It broke my heart because I let my emotions get the best of me. I couldn’t unsee the look on my wife’s face, the pain in her eyes— the woman I loved, the mother of my unborn child. That was the most foolish thing I’d ever done. It was unfair. I broke her heart to save another life. And my child— I wished she didn’t feel her mother’s pain, and I hoped one day she could forgive her father for what I’d done if I didn’t make it back. Lately, I doubted my action— I questioned myself if I was still doing the right thing. It was three in the morning, and I was already in my office. And I didn’t know where to begin because expressing my feelings and writing a letter wasn’t my strong suit. With modernization, who still wrote letters these days? And writing a sorry letter to my wife woul
ESTELLE “So you did all this to get to me?” I stood before my father in his house. A woman, just around my age, was still in a robe waiting upstairs. I didn’t want to judge women by their choices, but I couldn’t believe someone like her would be interested in a man her father’s age. That’s creepy and disgusting. “The product review, insulting my husband, and now you also ruined my marriage because you thought it was Gabriel’s influence that forced me to kick you out of the board.” “Linden is just using you.” “And you’re not? It wasn’t enough that you and Tyrion arranged my marriage to Klayton. I almost married that lazy good-for-nothing ass and ruined my life.” “Why, I’m not surprised that he chose to leave you?” “How did you know?” “I only gave him a chance to pick a choice, and he didn’t choose you. Now I believe that he’s not after your money. On the other hand, you deserve better than him.” “So you made him choice over what?” “His friend will get killed.” His admission mad
LINDEN “Grace? I called her name again, but she entered the driver’s seat unscathed. When I turned around, pointing a gun at the quick, heavy footsteps in our direction, I saw Jasper instead. I couldn’t contain my happiness. Relief filled my chest to see him alive. I ran towards him. “What the fuck are you doing here?” His eyes widened to see before he hugged me tight. I could see he was also happy to see a familiar face. “I could ask the same thing.” “Can we cut the reunion short?” Called out Grace. We sprinted to the car. I took the passenger’s seat. Jasper went to the backseat, and Grace hit the gas towards the main road. “How did you two get here together?” Amused, he asked. Grace ignored his question. Instead, she said, “Let me guess, you’re burned. Your cover is blown.” “We are supposed to meet a buyer today, but Ilya suddenly felt unease in the morning, the paranoid he already was. I instantly knew something was going on. When he asked me to pick up the package from t
LINDEN “I need to see my wife,” I informed my team as soon as we landed home. I was just glad that we all came back alive, even if Ilya’s powerful criminal empire might hunt us down one by one. Jasper went with Grace for a debriefing. “Good luck with that. Estelle was actually the one who found the letter that led us to the coordinates. She’s furious.” “I know.” My chest constricted. “I hurt her, but I’ll ask for her forgiveness for the rest of my life if I have to. Thank you for being there for her in my absence.” “Now that sounds like my real brother, not the asshole who hurt his wife last night.” When I finally arrived back at the house, the familiarity of being home came rushing back to me with the face of my wife in pain. “Estelle?” I climbed upstairs, hoping to find her in our bedroom or the nursery room she was still working on. I admired her tenacity for not allowing me to get involved. I trusted her, and I had no doubt she could pull it off and make the room beautiful f
ESTELLE “Oh, boy. What did he do this time?” I smiled, even if it was forced. “Hey, Willa. How are you?” I didn’t know what I was even doing here. I felt like I needed to be around someone who knew Linden better. “How are you? Oh, my God. My inner aunt is giggling.” She bent down to place her palm on my growing baby bump. “Hello, sweetheart. Aunt Willa can’t wait to hold you.” “I think this kid is thrilled to see you.” I chuckled. “I’m so excited. How’s the room decoration going on?” “Still working on it.” I noticed a new painting. A mysterious woman on a beautiful landscape in the sunset. “That’s beautiful.” “Really?” She blinked. I saw the gaiety in her eyes. “Yeah. It’s the quietness, the contentment, and the beauty that is represented in the landscape and the sunset, of course. The woman is happy in her life.” “That’s what exactly I’m trying to express.” “What do you mean? I stared at her, and her face broke to smile. I took a closer look at the signature at the lower ri