Semua Bab Revenge Wears A Ring: Bab 21 - Bab 30

Brayden's POVI stood near the entrance, nursing a glass of champagne I didn’t particularly want, my eyes scanning the room. But my thoughts weren’t on the people mingling around or the cold champagne flute in my hand. They were on her.Larissa. And our kiss.Her lips had been soft, warm, and tentative at first. And for a brief moment, it felt… real.I took a sip of my champagne, my jaw tightening. Larissa was supposed to be just a piece of this carefully constructed plane to take down Benjamin. Our marriage was a necessary evil and Larissa herself was a crucial ally. Nothing more. But that kiss had awakened something I wasn’t ready to name, and it unsettled me.I glanced at the time on my watch. She’d been gone for a while. At first, I didn’t bother about it. She had said she wanted to fix her lipstick in the bathroom but knowing her, she was probably trying to wash out the taste of our kiss from her mouth. I gave her a few more minutes.But as the minutes ticked by, unease began to

Brayden's POVIt was a little past midnight when Larissa and I got back home. All throughout the drive home, Larissa was oddly quiet, alternating between staring out the window and tapping away on her phone. I didn’t press her for conversation. Tonight had been a lot and I understood her silence. Dinner hadn’t particularly been fun for her all because of Benjamin.Benjamin was dangerous.Not because he was drunk and reckless, but because he enjoyed pushing people’s limits. He had sat there, sipping his champagne, and watching Larissa like a predator waiting for any sign of weakness to strike. And I had no doubt that tonight was just the beginning.Neither of us spoke as we walked up the marble steps and through the massive front doors. Inside, the house was quiet, save for the faint ticking of a grandfather clock in the entryway. Larissa exhaled softly, slipping off her heels and setting them neatly by the door. Without a word, she walked into the living room and sank into the couch.

Brayden's POV“Horrible.” I answered. “When his mum got married to my dad, I wanted to like Benjamin, I really did. But he was a spoiled brat. And Tiffany didn’t make matters any better. She was a great mum, don’t get me wrong. And I was lucky that my dad didn’t get married to someone who turned out to be cruel to me simply because I wasn’t her biological son. But Benjamin…“Most of my friends were my age, so we were all older than him and left to them, they would have left him out of our games and teased him mercilessly. But Tiffany made it very clear to me that Benjamin was my baby brother and that it was my duty to protect him. I didn’t have a problem with that at first. I did more than protect him. I loved him, I stood up for him, I took the fall for him, I cleaned up his messes. Many times; too many times.“Then Benjamin started to act out. It went from little things like him breaking the chinaware and asking me to take the fall for him to him setting the entire west wing of the

Larissa's POV I stood there, motionless, staring at the empty kitchen doorway Brayden had just walked through. The silence in the kitchen was deafening, the only sound was the faint hum of the refrigerator and the ticking of the clock on the wall. The smell of burnt eggs and Brayden’s cologne hung heavy in the air.This wasn’t how I expected this confrontation to go. I should have felt justified. I should have felt right. Instead, all I felt was… unsettled.I don’t know how long I stood there, staring at nothing. Then a surge of anger shot through me. I shouldn’t be the one standing here feeling bad. Brayden had been the one who had done something to me, why did he get to walk out as if he was the victim here?I needed to do something. I needed to leave, not just the kitchen but the estate. I didn’t care what our agreement was. There was no way I was staying here after what had happened.I made my way out of the kitchen, up the stairs, and through the corridor. My hand was on the doo

Larissa's POV I woke up to sunlight streaming in through the windows, cutting through the heavy curtains I had pulled back while I had sat by the window watching and waiting for Brayden to get back home. I didn’t even remember falling asleep.I turned over, squinting at the clock on the nightstand.2:27 PM. I had slept through the entire morning.Thanks to the painkillers I had taken earlier, I no longer had a headache. But the guilt was understandably still there. I shut my eyes. I had wanted to fix things. I had wanted to try. But he had been so distant with me. He wanted nothing to do with me and I couldn’t blame him.I wanted to check my phone to see if I had gotten any texts from him – though I doubted it – but I stopped at the last moment. Turning on my phone’s screen meant having to come face-to-face with Brayden’s image as my new wallpaper. I couldn’t bring myself to look at it, and I couldn’t bring myself to change it either because that would mean having to look at it, even