War God is Back for his Mother

Chapter 6: The Only Path

The room went quiet for exactly three seconds.

Then Alex Crown's anger broke through the surface like something that had been chained underwater for six months and finally snapped free.

"Let me ask you something," he said. His voice was low and shaking. "Since you forgive everything Dennis does. Since every disgusting thing he pulls is just an accident. Since every time he cries you roll over like a trained dog and lick his wounds for him. Then tell me this."

He stepped closer to her. His eyes were black.

"If one day you wake up naked in Dennis Doom's bed, with his hands all over you and his sweat still on your skin, would you still call that an accident too?"

Selena's mouth fell open.

"Would you still believe him when he cried and told you he didn't mean it? Would you still pat his head and tell him it's okay? Would you still come home to me and say I'm being petty for having a problem with it?"

"Alex, stop."

"No. I want to hear you answer me. Because that's exactly where this is heading. Every month he pushes the line a little further. First it was phone calls. Then it was sleepovers at his apartment. Then it was kissing you in front of your entire company. What's next? What's the next accident going to be?"

Selena's face went white. Then red. Then white again.

"You know what?" Alex said. He laughed. It was an ugly, hollow sound. "Why even wait for the accident? Why drag this out? If Dennis Doom is so important to you that you'll leave your wedding bed for him, sleep at the hospital for him, cancel trips for him, and let him shove his tongue down your throat in front of two hundred people for him, then just marry him."

"What?"

"Marry Dennis Doom. Right now. Today. Save us both the trouble of pretending this marriage means anything to you."

Selena Sterling stood frozen in the middle of the living room. Her face cycled through emotions so fast it was hard to keep track. Shock. Humiliation. Pain. And then rage.

Pure, burning rage.

"You're insane," she whispered. Her voice shook. "You are completely and absolutely insane."

"Am I?"

"You just compared me to a dog. You just accused me of sleeping with another man. On the second day of our marriage. The second day, Alex. And you're standing here telling me to go marry someone else like I'm some kind of animal you're returning to the pound."

Her eyes were blazing now. Tears sat at the edges but refused to fall.

"Do you have any idea how humiliating that is? Do you know how it feels to hear those words from the man who stood across from me at the altar yesterday and promised to love me?"

"I promised to love you. I didn't promise to share you."

"I am not being shared! There is nothing between me and Dennis! How many times do I have to say it before you believe me?"

Alex's jaw tightened so hard the muscles in his face twitched. He was holding himself together with everything he had. Every word she said made it worse. Every denial was another nail.

He took a breath. When he spoke again, his voice had gone cold. Completely, terrifyingly cold.

"You know exactly what Dennis Doom is doing to this marriage," he said. "You see it. You feel it. Every time he calls and you drop everything to run to him. Every time he touches you in ways no employee should touch his boss. Every time he puts himself between us. You know. You just choose to ignore it because admitting the truth would mean you have to do something about it."

Selena opened her mouth to argue but he kept going.

"So I'm going to say this one time. Clearly. If you continue this with Dennis Doom. If you keep living in this fantasy where nothing is wrong and everything he does is innocent and I'm just the jealous husband making problems out of nothing. Then divorce is the only path left for us."

The word hit Selena like a slap.

"Divorce?" She stared at him. "You're talking about divorce? We got married yesterday. The ink on our marriage certificate isn't even dry yet. And you're threatening me with divorce because I went to the hospital for a sick friend?"

"I'm not threatening you. I'm telling you the truth."

"The truth? Your truth is delusional, Alex. Your truth is built on paranoia and jealousy and some twisted fantasy where my assistant is secretly plotting to steal me away from you."

"If you truly cared about me," Alex said quietly, "you would know exactly what you need to do."

Selena felt the words land somewhere deep in her chest. For a split second, something cracked. A flicker of doubt. A tiny voice in the back of her head asking whether maybe he had a point. Whether maybe things with Dennis had gone too far.

But the flicker died as fast as it came. Pride killed it.

Her expression hardened. Her spine straightened. The warmth drained out of her face until there was nothing left but cold, stubborn certainty.

"I need to calm down," she said flatly. "And so do you."

Alex waited.

"I have done nothing wrong," she continued. Her voice was steady now. Controlled. Final. "I have not cheated. I have not lied. I have not betrayed you in any way. Dennis Doom is my employee and my friend. That is all he has ever been and all he will ever be. I am not going to fire him. I am not going to cut him off. And I am not going to change a single thing about how I handle my professional relationships just because you can't control your jealousy."

She looked him dead in the eyes.

"So no. I don't need to do anything. You need to get your head straight."

Alex Crown stared at her for a long time. His face was unreadable. Whatever storm had been raging inside him had gone somewhere deep and quiet, somewhere she could not reach.

He did not argue. He did not yell. He did not say another word.

He picked up his jacket from the back of the chair, turned around, and walked toward the front door.

Selena watched him go. Part of her wanted to call out to him. Part of her wanted to run after him and grab his arm and tell him to stop being ridiculous. But her pride held her feet to the floor like concrete.

The front door opened. Then it closed. The sound echoed through the empty house.

Selena stood there for a moment longer. Then her legs gave out and she sank onto the sofa. She pressed her palms against her face and let out a long, shaking breath.

The house was silent. The afternoon light stretched across the floor.

And Selena Sterling sat alone in the quiet, feeling nothing but frustration and irritation boiling inside her chest, unable to understand how everything had gone so wrong so fast.