THE BATTALION SON IN LAW

CHAPTER 2 - Suffocating silence

The Hamilton family banquet hall gleamed under the soft glow of crystal chandeliers, its mahogany walls adorned with portraits of stern-faced ancestors who seemed to judge every soul who entered their domain. The evening's anniversary celebration had drawn to a close, leaving only the echoes of forced laughter and the lingering scent of expensive wine.

Max Sterling stood near the floor-to-ceiling windows, his reflection ghostlike against the dark Texas landscape beyond. Rebecca sat rigidly in her chair at the head table, her champagne glass untouched, her knuckles white as she gripped the stem.

"You can't be serious about this divorce nonsense," Rebecca finally broke the suffocating silence, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. "We've been married for five years, Max. Five years of building something together."

"Building what exactly?" Max turned to face her, his eyes cold as winter steel. "A marriage where we sleep in separate rooms? Where we barely speak unless it's about business or family obligations? Tell me, Rebecca, what exactly have we built?"

The question hung in the air like a guillotine blade, ready to sever what remained of their pretense.

"We have a life," Rebecca insisted, rising from her chair with the grace of a predator. "A good life. The Hamilton name means something in this state."

"The Hamilton name," Max laughed bitterly, the sound echoing off the ornate walls. "Yes, let's talk about that precious name. The same name your family uses to justify treating me like hired help. The same name that makes your brother Alex think he can humiliate me at every turn."

Rebecca's jaw tightened, but she didn't deny it. She couldn't.

"Things will change," she said, her voice softer now, almost pleading. "My father... he's made a decision about the family business. Logan is going to be the successor now."

Max's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Logan? That wasn't supposed to happen. In my previous life, Alex was always the chosen heir. The timeline was already shifting in ways he hadn't anticipated.

"And what does that have to do with us?" Max asked carefully.

"It means..." Rebecca hesitated, color rising in her cheeks. "Father expects me to... to have a child. An heir to carry on the Hamilton legacy."

The words hit Max like a physical blow. In his previous life, children had never been discussed. Rebecca had made it clear early on that she had no interest in motherhood, too focused on her social standing and personal ambitions.

"So that's what this is about," Max said, understanding dawning in his voice. "You don't want to reconcile because you love me. You want to reconcile because Daddy needs a grandchild."

"That's not—" Rebecca started, but Max cut her off with a wave of his hand.

"Don't lie to me, Rebecca. We've told each other enough lies to last several lifetimes." He moved closer to her, his presence imposing in the vast room. "You said things would change. Does that mean we'd suddenly start sharing a bed again? Playing happy family for your father's benefit?"

Rebecca's cheeks flushed deeper, but she lifted her chin defiantly. "We could try. We could make this work, Max. No more separate rooms, no more distance between us."

"And you think that's enough?" Max's voice rose, years of pent-up frustration finally breaking free. "You think I'll just forget the way your family treats me? The way they mock me at every dinner, every business meeting, every social gathering?"

"They don't mean—"

"They don't mean what?" Max's eyes blazed with fury. "When Alex called me a 'charity case' at last month's board meeting? When your cousin Marcus suggested I should 'know my place' at the country club? When your own mother referred to me as 'Rebecca's little experiment' at the charity gala?"

Each word was a dagger, precisely aimed and delivered with surgical precision. Rebecca flinched with every accusation, but she remained standing.

"And through it all," Max continued, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper, "where were you, Rebecca? Where was my loving wife when her family was tearing me apart piece by piece?"

"I... I couldn't..."

"You stood there and said nothing!" Max's voice echoed through the banquet hall like thunder. "You watched them humiliate me, emasculate me, treat me like some kind of pet they barely tolerate, and you said nothing!"

Tears began to form in Rebecca's eyes, but Max felt no sympathy. I've shed enough tears for both of us.

"Father would never approve of a divorce," Rebecca said desperately, grasping for any argument that might sway him. "The scandal would ruin our family's reputation. My reputation."

"Your reputation," Max repeated slowly, tasting the bitterness of those words. "Of course. It always comes back to that, doesn't it? The precious Hamilton reputation."

"Max, please—"

"I'll take the blame," Max said firmly, cutting off her pleas. "I'll be the villain in your story. Tell everyone I was unfaithful, unstable, whatever you need to protect your precious standing. I don't care anymore."

The silence that followed was deafening. Rebecca stared at him as if seeing him for the first time, her carefully constructed composure finally beginning to crack.

"You don't love me anymore," she whispered, the words barely audible.

Max looked at her for a long moment, taking in her perfectly styled hair, her designer dress, her flawless makeup that couldn't quite hide the pain in her eyes.

"No," he said simply. "I don't. And honestly, I'm not sure I ever did. What I loved was the idea of you, the dream of what we could have been. But dreams don't survive in a house full of nightmares."

Rebecca's breath caught in her throat, and for a moment, Max thought she might collapse. But she was a Hamilton, and Hamiltons didn't break in public.

"This marriage, this family, this whole goddamn charade," Max continued, his voice steady and final. "It's suffocating me, Rebecca. I'm drowning in expectations and obligations and the weight of a name that was never really mine."

He moved toward the door, each step echoing in the vast room like a funeral march.

"Max, wait," Rebecca called out, her voice cracking. "We can work this out. We can—"

"No," Max said without turning around. "We can't. Some things are too broken to fix."

He paused at the threshold, his hand on the ornate door handle.

"Goodbye, Rebecca."

With that, Max Sterling walked out of the Hamilton banquet hall, leaving behind five years of marriage, countless humiliations, and a woman who would finally have to face the consequences of her family's cruelty.