2025-12-18 19:26:46She turned, sweeping her hair aside, exposing the elegant curve of her neck. Alexander fastened the necklace with careful fingers, his hands lingering just slightly too long on her shoulders.
"Perfect," he murmured. "Absolutely perfect."
Quinn touched the pendant, then turned and embraced him. The hug lasted three seconds too long to be merely friendly.
Marcus's vision blurred at the edges.
"To Alexander Grant!" Grandfather Sebastian's voice rang out again. "A true gentleman who knows quality when he sees it!"
Everyone rose. Glasses lifted. Voices joined in celebration of a man who wasn't family, wasn't even trying to be subtle about his intentions, but who everyone clearly preferred to the man Quinn had actually married.
Marcus remained seated at his forgotten table, hands clenched so tight his knuckles had gone white, nails digging crescents into his palms.
The party began winding down. Guests congratulated each other on a successful evening. Business cards exchanged hands. Plans were made for future gatherings.
Then Quinn stood, calling for attention. The room quieted instantly—a Saintess commanded respect through mere presence.
"Thank you all for celebrating Grandfather's birthday," she began, her voice clear and gracious. "Your presence means everything to our family. I especially want to thank Mother and Father for organizing this beautiful event, and Grandfather for allowing us to honor his remarkable life."
She continued through the list: thanking distant cousins for traveling, thanking business partners for their loyalty, thanking the staff for their excellent service.
"And finally," Quinn's voice softened, took on that warmth again, "I want to thank Alexander Grant for being my rock during difficult times. For his unwavering support, his brilliant mind, and his constant presence when I needed someone I could truly rely on."
The words hung in the air like a verdict.
She didn't mention Marcus. Not once. Didn't acknowledge his presence, his existence, his three years of enduring this family's contempt.
As if he wasn't even there.
The party dispersed. Guests filtered toward the exit. Marcus waited until the crowd thinned, then followed Quinn toward the private family wing.
He found her in the hallway, still wearing that crystal necklace Alexander had given her.
"Quinn."
She turned, her expression cooling the moment she saw him. "What?"
"Why?" The word came out hoarse. "Why are you treating me this way?"
"Treating you what way?" She crossed her arms. "I've given you everything, Marcus. A home, status, a place in one of the most powerful families in Eastmere State—"
"You didn't mention me," he interrupted. "In your speech. You thanked everyone except your husband."
"I made a sacred promise to Bella," Quinn said, her voice hardening. "To protect her brother, to ensure he succeeds. Everything I do is to honor that vow. If you can't understand the importance of a Saintess's sacred duty, then you're even more common than I thought."
"What about your duty as a wife?"
"Don't you dare lecture me about duty!" Quinn's holy power crackled in the air, making the hallway lights flicker. "I've given you everything! What have you given me? You're unemployed, powerless, worthless! You contribute nothing while I build an empire! The least you can do is support my obligations to people who actually matter!"
The words hit like hammered nails, each one finding its mark with surgical precision.
Marcus stared at his wife—this cold, beautiful stranger who wore his wedding ring while calling another man invaluable—and something inside him snapped.
His vision went red.
With a roar that came from three years of swallowed rage, Marcus turned and stormed back into the banquet hall. The remaining guests looked up in alarm.
The dessert table still stood, pristine and perfect, loaded with crystal and fine china.
Marcus grabbed the edge and overturned it.
The crash was spectacular. Crystal shattered. China exploded across marble. Expensive desserts splattered like abstract art. Guests screamed and scrambled back.
Quinn rushed in, eyes wide. "Marcus, what are you—"
"If I'm worthless," he snarled, "then nobody celebrates!"
He spotted Alexander near the entrance, the man's perfect face showing shock for the first time all evening.
Marcus moved.
His fist crashed into Alexander's jaw with three years of accumulated fury behind it. The cultivator went down hard, not expecting a "common man" to have such strength.
Marcus didn't stop. He couldn't stop. Every punch released another memory—another humiliation, another dismissal, another moment of being invisible in his own marriage.
"Marcus, stop!" Quinn recovered, rushing forward. Her Saintess powers flared, golden light filling the hallway.
But she didn't pull Marcus away.
Instead, she threw herself over Alexander's body, shielding him with her own.
"Are you insane?!" she screamed, her eyes glowing with holy power. "You're hurting Bella's brother! I promised to protect him!"
I promised to protect him.
The words echoed in the sudden silence.
Marcus stepped back, chest heaving, knuckles bleeding. He stared at his wife kneeling on the floor, protecting another man with her body and her powers, choosing Alexander over him with crystal clarity.
"And what about your promise to me?" Marcus asked quietly. "On our wedding day, you promised to honor me. To forsake all others. Remember?"
Quinn's face twisted with guilt and anger. "That was before I knew what you really were! Before I realized I married someone who would never amount to anything!"
The entire family stood frozen in doorways, watching this brutal dismantling of a marriage.
Marcus looked at his wife—really looked at her—and saw the truth he'd been avoiding for three years.
She'd never loved him. Maybe she'd convinced herself she had, maybe her Saintess intuition had shown her something she wanted to see. But whatever had brought them together had died long ago, suffocated under the weight of her family's contempt and her own growing resentment.
"I see," he said softly. "You've already made your choice."
Then the building began to shake.
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CHAPTER 323 PART 3
It rolled sideways with a sound that was part metal, part glass, and part the specific noise that physics makes when it disagrees with the structural integrity of an object built to travel horizontally.The first roll crushed the passenger side roof against the asphalt. The second roll brought the vehicle to rest upside down in the center of the intersection, its headlights pointing at the sky, its undercarriage exposed like the belly of a dead animal.Inside, Austin Yarrow's training held. His body had locked into the correct position the moment the first tilt registered. His arms braced against the ceiling. His legs absorbed the rolling momentum. His head stayed tucked against his chest.Miguel Abbott was alive. His breathing was rapid and shallow and his hands were gripping the seat belt that had kept him from being thrown through the windshield. Blood ran from a cut on his forehead where something had struck him during the second rotation."Mr. Abbott." Austin's voice came out ste
CHAPTER 323 PART 2
The first floor of the building erupted with a concussive blast that blew the corridor windows inward and sent a wall of heated air through the hallway like a fist made of pressure and noise.The lights went out. The emergency strips along the floor activated, casting thin red lines that turned the corridor into something that looked like the inside of a furnace."Gas line." Austin pulled both men toward the stairwell door. "That was deliberate. Someone blew the building's gas main to flush us toward the exits. Move. Now."They reached sublevel two in forty five seconds. Two armored vehicles sat in the emergency bay, engines cold but keys in the ignition. Austin put Miguel in the first vehicle and Stanislaus in the second. He took the wheel of the lead car and pulled out of the underground level into the street.The night air hit the windshield carrying the smell of smoke and something chemical that did not belong to a natural gas explosion.Austin reached for his phone. The screen sh
CHAPTER 323 PART 1
Stanislaus Potter set his napkin on the table and leaned back in his chair with the satisfied expression of a man who had eaten well and was now preparing to think about something less pleasant than the food."He cancelled us, Miguel. That wasn't a tax compliance issue and we both know it."Miguel Abbott finished his wine and placed the glass on the white tablecloth with the careful precision of a man who agreed completely but wanted to hear the full theory before contributing to it. "Go on.""Marcus Steel cancelled us at the Hartford Group as a signal. We moved on Beacon Electronics shares without running it through him first. We made a decision that affected his territory without asking permission, and he reminded us, very politely, that permission is required." Stanislaus folded his arms and looked at the ceiling with the resigned acceptance of a man who had made a mistake and was now measuring the cost of correcting it."It wasn't impolite." Miguel allowed himself a small smile. "
CHAPTER 322 PART 3
"The aircraft is already cleared." Bane's voice was patient but his eyes had changed, shifting from neutral to something colder and more focused. "My father arranged this personally.""I understand, sir. But protocol requires confirmation from the chairman's office directly. I'll need to make the call before anyone proceeds." The guard reached for the radio on his shoulder with the determined expression of a man who believed following procedure would protect him from whatever was happening around him."Don't make that call." Bane's voice dropped."Sir, I have to. The protocol is clear and I..."Bane Cross moved.The first guard dropped before his hand reached the radio. The second guard turned toward the sound and met Bane's elbow traveling in the opposite direction.The third guard reached for his weapon and found Bane's hand around his wrist and then found the concrete with his face.The movements were fast, precise, and carried the specific efficiency of a man who had been trained
CHAPTER 322 PART 2
"Five-River Province. Tonight. If the Boulevard League's first priority is Miguel Abbott and Stanislaus Potter, then Five-River Province is where the next move happens, and I need to be there before it does."Marcus left the Meridian Premier Hotel through the service entrance and got into a vehicle that Aron Jackson had positioned at the loading dock.The drive across Grayson City took twenty two minutes at that hour, and he spent every one of them with his phone dark and his eyes on the road and his mind running the connections between the Boulevard League, the Lancaster family, the Kensington family, and the organizing intelligence he had been trying to identify for three weeks.The underground parking structure beneath the Willson Group International Building was empty except for one vehicle and one man.Bane Cross leaned against the hood of a black sedan with his arms folded and his face carrying the neutral patience of a man who had been waiting and did not consider waiting to be
CHAPTER 322 PART 1
Marcus had the Meridian Premier Hotel locked down before Stanley Isolde finished dialing his second number.Aron Jackson moved his people through the building with the quiet efficiency of a man sealing a jar. Two men at the parking structure entrance. Two at the service dock behind the kitchen. One at each stairwell on floors twelve through sixteen. Three at the rooftop access point. The street level approaches on both sides of the building received a pair each, positioned in vehicles with clear sight lines to every door that opened onto the sidewalk."The building is sealed." Aron Jackson stood beside Marcus in the fourteenth floor corridor with his phone in his hand and his face carrying the focused calm of a man who had done this enough times that the mechanics no longer required conscious thought. "Whatever Stanley Isolde sends here walks into a structure where the exits have been quietly revised.""Good. Hold positions. Nobody enters or leaves without my knowledge."Marcus's secu
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Reader Comments
First 2 chapters in an I'm already ticked off.. I would not have gone in de first place.... Not one single person in this family likes him an that includes de help.