Touch My Daughter, and You Die

Chapter 009

With the crowd finally gone, a fragile quiet settled over the Whitlock family home.

But it was the kind of quiet that fooled no one. Every face in the room was clouded with a different worry, every mind turning over its own private calculations.

Only Nora seemed untouched by the gloom. She bounced around Elena, chattering nonstop about how fearlessly her father had swept in to save them, her eyes bright with open adoration.

It was clear that in her small heart, the man she had met for the very first time that day had already carved out a permanent place.

"Mommy, let's go find Daddy, okay? I want Daddy to teach me martial arts. Then if anyone ever bullies us again, Nora can beat up the bad guys just like Daddy did!"

She tugged at Elena's sleeve, ready to drag her straight out the door.

"Enough of that noise!"

Walter had heard more than he could stand. His bellow cracked across the room, aimed squarely at the little girl.

Doris shot her a look of pure irritation, not even bothering to hide it.

They were Nora's grandparents by blood, yet they had never once given her a warm look. Elena had a face that could stop traffic, and yet she dragged this child around like a millstone.

Worse still, she was living proof that Elena had been violated before she was ever married, a stain the family could never wash away.

Nora burst into tears on the spot, burying her face against Elena's chest, her small shoulders shaking.

The room dissolved into chaos.

"Walter! It's us!"

At that exact moment, the front door swung open and a middle-aged couple strode in without waiting to be announced.

"Harold, Lydia, what brings you here?"

Walter was on his feet in an instant the moment he recognized them.

The new arrivals were none other than Harold Whitlock, head of the family, and his wife, Lydia Whitlock.

"Doris, tea. Now," Walter said, already ushering the couple toward the seats, his tone sharp with urgency as he glanced at his wife.

Doris's expression transformed instantly, the irritation wiped clean and replaced with a practiced smile as she hurried off to pour the tea.

"Someone explain this to me," Harold said, his face like stone. "I already accepted the betrothal gifts from the Calloway family. Now I hear Julian has been beaten half to death?"

"Do you have any idea what this arranged marriage means to the Whitlock family?"

Harold's expression didn't soften.

"Harold, I never imagined it would come to this," Walter said, choosing his words carefully. "That bastard who ruined Elena all those years ago, he showed up out of nowhere, right here in this house, and crippled Julian with his bare hands..."

Walter had no choice but to explain the situation in detail.

"Are you saying it was him?" Harold and Lydia exchanged a stunned glance, struggling to believe what they had just heard.

"Who does this man think he is, going after the Calloways like that?" Harold demanded, his brow furrowing in anger and disbelief.

"Harold, I only just found out myself. Turns out he's Wyatt, the eldest son of the Hale family. God knows where he picked up that kind of skill, but the whole crowd of Calloway men together couldn't touch him."

Just recalling what had happened was enough to send another chill down Walter's spine.

"Wait, are you saying it was Wyatt?" Harold exclaimed, his expression shifting as the realization finally sank in.

"So it really was him..." Harold murmured, his shock only deepening as he processed the revelation.

"If the Hale family were still what it used to be, this would be the luckiest break we've ever had. Pity the Hale family's fallen so far these days, they're living worse than stray dogs. Edmund and Caleb have been ground down like a couple of corpses that just haven't stopped breathing yet."

Harold shook his head, thinking of how the Hales had once stood at the top and now scraped along at the bottom. There was something almost wistful in his voice.

"Harold, Julian's crippled now, there's no way this marriage can go forward..."

Walter kept his eyes on Harold's face as he spoke, trying to read his reaction. Elena was his only daughter, flesh and blood, and rich as the Calloways were, he had no intention of marrying her off to a cripple.

"I know. Word reached me just before I came here, the Calloways have already pulled out of the arrangement on their own. That's exactly why I'm here, to find out what happened."

Even now, Harold couldn't make sense of why the Calloways would walk away first.

But what was done was done. All that was left now was to figure out the next move.

"They withdrew on their own?"

Walter, Doris, and Elena all stared at him, caught completely off guard.

None of them had imagined Wyatt commanded that kind of fear.

"Still, Calloway or no Calloway, Elena needs a husband, and soon. I've already decided. We're going to arrange a match for her in Harborcrest."

Harold's tone left no room for argument.

"Arrange a match?"

"Harold... the Calloway business only just happened. Isn't this moving a little fast?"

Walter looked genuinely thrown.

"Do you not understand the position this family is in?"

"We need an infusion of capital, and fast. The fastest way to pull the Whitlock family out of this hole is to marry Elena off to a wealthy husband. That solves everything."

Harold's glare cut straight through him.

Walter's spine seemed to fold in on itself under that stare. He'd been afraid of his older brother since he was a child, and that fear hadn't faded with age.

"That settles it. Spread the word immediately."

Harold spoke with the full weight of his authority as head of the family.

"Uncle, I won't agree to this!"

Elena could no longer hold her tongue.

Did they really think she was nothing more than a bargaining chip they could trade whenever it suited them? No matter how hard she tried to put the thought aside, her mind kept drifting back to Wyatt, the one man she couldn't seem to stop thinking about.

She let out a cold scoff before responding, "Since when have I needed your permission to make my own decisions?"

"You're a member of the Whitlock family, and that means you'll do exactly as I tell you," he snapped, making it clear that he expected unquestioning obedience.

Harold's gaze swept over her, cold and dismissive.

"Elena, just listen to your Uncle." Walter's voice turned pleading. "You're not getting any younger, and you've got a child dragging behind you. While you're still young and beautiful, this is your best chance to land a good household."

Walter knew full well that once his brother made a decision, there was no undoing it. All he could do now was try to talk Elena into accepting it. And honestly, part of him wanted her married off quickly, if only to keep Wyatt from showing up at his door again.

"Dad, I won't do it!"

Elena scooped Nora into her arms and fled to her room.

"That's final. Watch her closely these next two days. She doesn't set foot outside this house."

Harold rose and walked out without another word.

Back in the bedroom, Nora gently reached up with her little hands and tried to wipe the tears streaming down her mother's cheeks.

"Mommy, please don't cry. Why don't we go find Daddy and leave this awful place together?"

At the mention of Wyatt, Elena felt a fierce determination well up inside her, replacing the sadness and helplessness that had been weighing on her heart.

Rather than let herself be sacrificed for the family's sake, maybe it was time to make a real decision and leave with Wyatt for good. Whatever else was true, he was Nora's father by blood, and he had already shown, without hesitation, that he was willing to do anything for the two of them.

Led by Bruno, Wyatt arrived directly at the headquarters of the Cobalt crew, under the banner of the Greataxe Syndicate.

"This is the place?"

Wyatt studied the compound ahead of him, taking in the high walls and heavy gate.

Bruno nodded, gritting his teeth against the pain as he climbed down from the car.

"Bruno!"

The two men stationed at the entrance called out the moment they spotted him, their tone instantly deferential.

It was obvious Bruno outranked them by a wide margin.

"Bruno, what happened to you?"

They stared, baffled, at the way he limped, at the dried blood still crusted at the corner of his mouth.

Before Bruno could answer, Wyatt had already stepped down from the car.

"Get inside," Wyatt said, and planted a boot squarely against Bruno's backside to send him stumbling through the gate.

"Who the hell do you think you are, hitting our Bruno?"

The two guards lunged at Wyatt without a second thought.

Bruno tried to shout a warning, tried to stop them before it was too late, but the words came a beat too slow.

Wyatt's foot snapped out once. Both men flew backward through the air and slammed into the heavy wooden doors behind them, the impact punching two man-shaped holes clean through the wood.

"What's going on out there?"

Inside the courtyard, dozens of Greataxe Syndicate men had been drilling in formation, each gripping a gleaming broadsword. The sudden crash sent the two bodies sprawling across the stone ground, and the entire courtyard erupted into confused shouting.