Chapter 6

• HIS POV~
• The tinted window of my car kept me invisible, the window rolled down just enough for me to hear the furious voices of Liam Tate’s worshipers slithering inside.
• “Evil bitch!” one screamed.
• “Go die!” another one spat.
• Their words kept piling onto one another as if she was not a living person, but a carcass meant for public display.
• I leaned back on my leather chair, puffing out the smoke from my cigar glowing faintly.
• From here, I could see her clearly.
• She was walking past the enraged crowd in a hurry, arms wrapped around her small body as if hugging herself, the comfort she needed amidst the chaos.
• Right now, she was fragile, trembling. As one would expect from a woman who devoted herself to her husband only to get betrayed and stripped bare from everything.
• “The judge has given the final verdict today,” I hear Pierce’s voice from the other side of the seat, right across from me. “Kerri Coleman’s assets will be handed to her ex-husband.”
• “All of it?” I ask, still keeping my gaze on her. I could see the tears from her eyes threatening to spill, but she blinked them back.
• “Even her car,” Pierce added, scrolling through his phone and reading what I presume is another degrading article written about her.
• I guess darling Kerri will be riding the bus from now on.
• “Sir, are we not going to intervene? The crowd is becoming hostile—”
• “No,” I cut him off.
• Not yet.
• Despite the rage burning in my chest.
• I wanted nothing more but step out of this car and silence the crowd, painting the courthouse red with their blood.
• But I shouldn’t step in, no, not yet.
• This is her punishment. Her crucifixion.
• She must remember how loathsome the feeling is.
• Betrayed, broken and alone.
• Let this nightmarish experience burn into her soul and only when the world had ripped her apart would she finally look at me.
• ***
• “Sir, Miss Kerri was turned away by her family. They refuse to accept her into their house,” Pierce leaned in to report his findings to me after tailing her.
• Her family discarded her? How predictable.
• It was obvious that they wouldn’t want anything to do with their daughter, especially when the media had already destroyed her name.
• People are weak when reputation is on the line. Blood means nothing when shame has become too heavy.
• That is something I have learned in my line of work.
• I set my whiskey to the side and glanced out the window, relishing the view of the city from my high-rise building.
• “And where is she now?” My tone was sharp.
• No matter how much I look forward to her hellish encounters with her ex-husband’s fans, I fear the possibility that they might hurt her so I had people following her everywhere she goes.
• “She’s currently staying with her friend, Alina Greene.”
• I stopped to think. Most likely she’s going to hide there until the issue dies.
• If that happens, how is she going to see what I prepared for her all over the city?
• “Leak the address,” I leaned back on my swivel chair, clasping my hands together.
• From the corner of my eyes, I saw Pierce’s confused expression, though it was only for a second.
• “To the media, sir?”
• “The most aggressive ones,” I added, meeting his gaze.
• Silence enveloped my dimmed office.
• Pierce never questioned me before, even when I asked him to shoot a person point-blank, yet now he's hesitating.
• “But sir, she would be safer with her friend—"
• “I want her out of there,” I said, deliberately slowing each word. “No roof and no place to hide.”
• Pierce’s eyes narrowed.
• If only he wasn’t my right-hand man, and someone I consider a close ally, then I would have shot him already for questioning my orders.
• “I want her to see every goddamn corner of this city that is plastered with her ex-husband’s face. I want her to see his triumph, his betrayal immortalized on glowing screens.” I shift my gaze out the window to see the city that is mostly covered with Liam Tate’s face.
• Every step she would take, every street she turned to, her cheating ex-husband would be there, reminding her of what she had lost.
• She will see all the billboards, posters, and advertisements... that I paid for.
• My lips curved into a smile.
• “Understood,” Pierce finally spoke after a long pause.
• He had known me for a long time to know that this was not cruelty, it was precision, it was strategy.
• Kerri had to be pushed further, cornered until there was nowhere left to turn.
• Every door slammed in her face only opened one closer to mine.
• I am certain that once despair had already seeped into her bones, when she had been driven into a corner, and when she had begun falling faster, I would be at the bottom with open arms.
• And now, a few days later, I have her here in my office.
• She would have no choice but to accept my deal.
• For her to finally be mine... marriage.
• “I refuse,”
• Kerri shut down my proposal.
• For the first time in so many years, I felt my confidence crack. I sat perfectly still, using enough strength to control my expression while she sat across from me with a fiery gaze.
• Right now, she was the complete opposite of the woman I have seen trembling out in the streets.
• She was different tonight.
• She was brave and bold that, for a quick split second, I caught a glimpse of her when she was younger, with that same expression.
• I thought I wouldn’t see this version of her anymore.
• The woman I have loved.
• The part of her that was buried from marrying Liam Tate, reshaping her into a submissive person.
• My chest tightened, and my pulse drummed against my ears from excitement, knowing that she was still the same.
• And it was because of me.
• I smiled, “...I know you’ll come back.” I shot a glance at Pierce standing at the corner, giving him a subtle sign to play a recording of a radio show in his car when he escorts her.
• Something that I believe would give her that one last push to start fighting for herself and bring down those who hurt her.
• And come back she did.
• The echo of her footsteps made me smile wider.
• She burst through the door like a whirlwind, chest rising and falling with fury.
• “Fine!”
• Her furious voice echoed in my vast and dark office, but my smile just kept growing wider and wider.
• “I will marry you.”
• Good girl.