Chapter 4
777 Words
The eldest brother's eyes were rimmed with red. His voice could have frozen the whole estate solid.
"Who the hell touched my sister?"
Dead silence.
Adrian stood frozen, his face pale as he took in the sea of black-suited men filling the courtyard.
Bianca, after a moment of shock, lit up with barely concealed glee. She thought they were here for her.
Forgetting her twisted ankle, dragging her shaky legs—still weak from watching that car nearly crush me—she lunged toward the eldest brother, sobbing.
"Damian! Ethan! Julian! You're finally here! Summer's gone crazy. She hit me, and she deliberately sent her dog into the road just to frame Adrian for running her over! You have to punish her!"
She reached for his sleeve.
But he didn't even glance at her. He walked right past her, toward me—still lying in a pool of blood.
Bianca grabbed nothing but air. She stumbled and fell to the ground, her tears freezing mid-act.
Adrian went still too, his pupils shaking.
The three brothers crouched down around me.
Ethan slipped off his expensive tailored jacket and wrapped it carefully around my bruised and scraped shoulders. As he held my arm, his hands wouldn't stop trembling.
The moment I was in his arms, he pulled me tight against him, and I saw the wet gleam of tears rising in his eyes.
Ethan's voice cracked as he pulled me in. "Summer. Look at you... All these bruises. I can't take it. I can't."
I opened my mouth, but the tears came faster than the words. I soaked the front of his shirt before I could speak.
Bianca sat frozen on the floor. She turned her head slowly, and her eyes went wide with dawning horror. Adrian stood motionless, his face wiped blank.
Ethan cupped my face in his hands and studied every inch of it. His thumb brushed the dried blood from my cheek. "Who did this to you?" he said through his teeth. "Tell me everything."
I doubled over from a stab of pain and pointed behind me. "My back. Adrian Carter shoved me into the garden trellis. That's where this came from."
Ethan followed my finger to Adrian. The look in his eyes was murder.
Then I stretched out my leg and showed them the bruises mottled across my skin, dark purple and black. "My legs. Bianca told Adrian to hit me with the car."
Ethan's hand closed around my leg, and his knuckles went white. I could feel his breathing turn heavy and rough.
Bianca scrambled to her feet and lurched toward Ethan's arm. "Ethan, are you crazy? It's me, Bianca. You love me more than anyone. Why are you protecting this orphan over me?"
Ethan flung her off with a single motion, and she hit the ground hard. "Enough. Whatever came before, that's over now."
Adrian stood rooted to the spot, his face white as a sheet. His mouth opened and closed, but nothing came out.
Bianca refused to accept it. She spun toward Damian and Julian Moore, her voice breaking. But the men who had once spoiled her like a little princess looked back at her with nothing but ice.
She collapsed onto the floor, defeated, and fixed me with a glare of pure venom.
I was still tucked against Ethan's chest, tears clinging to my lashes, and I let a slow, deliberate smile spread across my lips.
She snapped. Her finger shot out, aimed right at my nose. "I know what this is. You're Ethan's w***e. You filthy slut, you seduced Adrian back when you were just a waitress, and now you've gotten your claws into Ethan too. Do you have any shame at all?"
Adrian's face went pale. His eyes locked onto me, unblinking.
Bianca was wild now, screaming toward the door. "Everyone, come look at this. This married w***e is screwing around with my brother and turning my own flesh and blood against me."
A crowd had gathered outside the door, craning their necks and whispering.
Adrian stared at me, his voice hoarse.
"Summer... what's your connection to the Woods?"
I didn't answer him.
Bianca grabbed her phone, and her smile twisted with triumph. "I'm uploading every single nude I've got of you, Summer. Let the whole world see exactly what a cheap slut you are."
Her thumb was a second away from the screen when Julian moved. He seized her wrist, twisted it hard, and hurled her back. The phone flew out of her hand, and Bianca's body went with it.
"Summer is our real sister," Julian's voice cut through like ice. "You, Bianca, are nothing but an impostor."
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