Chapter 5
1546 Words
~ Becca ~
Nate left me in my room with a cup of tea and a warning.
“Don’t open the door for anyone,” he said. “Not him. Not anyone who says they’re here to talk. I mean it, B.”
I nodded and told him I was fine, but my hands were still shaking long after he closed the door.
Fine. Okay. Breathing. Alive.
That was all I had to focus on.
The house was quiet. Too quiet. I could hear Dad’s heavy footsteps downstairs, the faint hum of the TV he wasn’t actually watching. Nate paced the living room like a guard dog, muttering curses that were meant to make me laugh but only made my chest ache.
I tried to lie down. I tried to distract myself. But my mind kept replaying it… the red lingerie, the wine, the tray, the glass, the moans, the laugh, the smirk, the insults.
And the moment my heart broke so loudly I swear the walls heard it.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe.
But then
A car door slammed outside.
Hard.
Too hard.
My entire body froze.
Nate cursed downstairs. “Dad… he’s here.”
My throat tightened. No. No. No. Not now. Not when my chest still felt split open. Not when I was still bleeding inside.
My hands clutched the bedsheets. My pulse slammed in my ears.
Stephen’s voice thundered through the front door before anyone even opened it.
“OPEN THE f*****g DOOR!”
I flinched.
Dad’s voice followed, steady but sharp. “You should leave, Stephen. She doesn’t want to see you.”
“I don’t care,” Stephen barked. “She’s my fiancée.”
“She’s not,” Nate snapped back. “Not anymore.”
There was a violent thud Stephen slamming his palm against the door.
“I’m not leaving until she talks to me,” he yelled.
Talk. He wanted to talk.
He wanted to explain how his d**k “accidentally slipped” into my cousin. He wanted to explain why I wasn’t enough. He wanted to explain why the humiliation was somehow my fault.
My heart pounded harder with every word that followed.
“You don’t get to block me out!” Stephen shouted. “She belongs to me!”
I stood up, not thinking, just moving. My feet carried me toward the door despite every piece of me wanting to hide.
But before I even reached the stairs
The front door burst open.
Dad staggered back. Nate lunged forward, ready to swing.
Stephen shoved both of them aside.
He wasn’t calm. He wasn’t charming. He wasn’t even human at that moment. He looked like an animal pacing on the edge of violence eyes wild, breathing sharp, hair messed up like he’d been ripping it out.
His gaze shot up the stairs the second he saw me.
“There you are,” he breathed, like he had found something he lost.
My skin crawled.
“Stephen,” Nate warned, stepping between us.
Stephen didn’t even look at him. He came up the stairs anyway, fast, too fast.
“Don’t,” I whispered, stepping back.
His jaw clenched. “We need to talk, Becca. You can’t just walk out. You can’t just”
“Can’t what?” I snapped. “Can’t leave after finding you inside my cousin? Can’t leave after you laughed at me with her? Can’t leave after you”
“You misunderstood,” he cut in, voice wavering. “You always do this. You take things personally and”
I almost choked.
“Personally?” I repeated. “You cheated on me, Stephen. There is no other way to take that.”
He reached for me.
Nate grabbed his arm immediately. “Back up.”
Stephen yanked free. “I’m talking to my fiancée.”
“I’m not your fiancée,” I said sharply.
Stephen froze. “Yes, you are.”
“No,” I said. “Not anymore.”
The way his face twisted anger, panic, disbelief felt like watching something break behind his eyes.
“You don’t mean that,” he said. “You’re just emotional. You’re reacting. You always react before you think.”
I shook my head. “No, Stephen. For the first time in my life, I am thinking clearly.”
He laughed once a broken, trembling sound.
“That’s bullshit,” he spat. “You’re not leaving me because you’re angry. You’re leaving me because Nate filled your head with his hatred for my family. You’re leaving because you let your insecurities win. You’re leaving because”
“Because you betrayed me,” I snapped. “Stop rewriting the story.”
His chest rose sharply.
Then
He grabbed my wrist.
So fast I didn’t have time to move.
Nate shoved him. “Get your hands off her!”
Stephen ignored him. His eyes locked onto mine, desperate, frantic.
“You don’t get to throw everything away over one mistake,” he hissed. “You don’t get to run. You don’t get to embarrass me like this.”
Embarrass him.
Of course.
My stomach twisted as I tried to pull my hand away, but his grip tightened.
“You are coming with me,” he said. “We’re going to fix this.”
“No,” I whispered.
His nostrils flared. “Becca, don’t start.”
“I said no!”
I ripped my arm free just as Dad stepped between us again.
“Boy, get out of my house before I drag you out.”
Stephen looked like he might explode. His fists clenched. His breathing grew ragged.
And then
A voice cut through the hallway like steel.
“What the hell is going on here?”
We all turned.
Jace Hale stood in the doorway.
His presence hit the room like a cold blade sharp, tall, controlled, dressed in a charcoal coat that looked too expensive for this chaos.
His eyes landed on me first widening slightly, taking in my trembling, my wrist, my breathing.
Then his gaze slid to Stephen.
And hardened.
Stephen scoffed. “Of course. Of course you’re here. Why wouldn’t you be? You always show up when you’re not f*****g wanted.”
Jace didn’t react. He walked into the house like he owned it.
“Nate,” Jace said calmly. “Is she okay?”
Nate nodded once. “She will be.”
“Good,” Jace murmured.
Stephen’s rage spiked. “Stay out of this.”
Jace stepped between us with surgical precision, placing himself directly in front of me.
“I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” he said softly.
“This has nothing to do with you,” Stephen snapped.
Jace tilted his head. “It does now.”
Stephen’s face twisted with fury. “She’s mine.”
“No,” Jace said, voice low. “What you had was trust. And you destroyed it.”
Stephen lunged.
Jace didn’t even flinch. He grabbed Stephen by the collar and slammed him against the wall so hard the picture frames rattled.
Nate jumped forward, ready if things escalated. Dad held him back with a firm hand.
Stephen struggled, furious, humiliated.
“Let me go!”
Jace leaned closer, voice dropping to a deadly murmur.
“If you touch her again, I will break your arm.”
Silence.
Cold. Heavy. Real.
Stephen stared at him, breathing hard, eyes wild.
Then his gaze slid past Jace.
To me.
“You think he’s better than me?” he asked, voice cracking. “You think he’s going to love you more than I did?”
My chest tightened.
Jace didn’t let him get any closer.
Stephen’s jaw trembled.
“This isn’t over,” he said finally. “You will come back to me. You always do.”
Then he shoved Jace off him and stormed down the stairs, slamming the front door behind him so violently the whole house shook.
Silence settled.
My throat tightened as the adrenaline drained from my body. I felt dizzy. Overwhelmed. Sick.
Jace turned to me slowly.
“Are you hurt?” he asked.
His voice was low. Gentle. Nothing like the brutal tone he used a moment ago.
“I’m fine,” I whispered.
“You’re shaking.”
“I know.”
Jace stepped closer, carefully, like he didn’t want to scare me.
“Becca,” he said softly. “You don’t have to deal with him alone.”
Something inside me cracked—not in a painful way, but in a way that felt terrifying and strangely safe.
Nate stood behind me like a wall of protection.
Dad was still breathing heavy.
The house was still a mess of footsteps and fear.
But Jace’s presence…
It felt like the calm after a storm.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
He nodded once, eyes softening. “Get some rest. He won’t come back tonight.”
“How do you know?” I asked.
Jace’s jaw tightened.
“Because if he does,” he said quietly, “he’ll be dealing with me.”
And for the first time since that hotel room
I didn’t feel weak.
I didn’t feel small.
I didn’t feel worthless.
I felt… protected.
And I hated how much I needed that.
- Writer
