Chapter 4

Shannon's POV

As the early morning breeze blew past, the alcohol rushed straight to my head.

I pulled my coat tight around myself, leaning against the entrance of the bar while waiting for Alexander Hayes.

We had won the Horizon project, but I couldn't feel the slightest bit of joy.

My stomach burned fiercely, and dizzy spells washed over my vision. My balance slipped, and I started falling backward.

A hand caught me firmly from behind.

"He let you drink like this and just left you out here in the freezing wind?"

I turned to see who it was and froze.

It was Julian Vance.

Alexander's childhood brother and the one who had smashed the lock at the hospital to save me that day.

"Julian, about last time, I haven't had the chance to thank you—"

"I don't want your thanks."

Julian cut me off, an obvious edge of fury in his voice.

Furious at how Alexander treated me, and furious that I let Alexander run all over me like this.

"Shannon, listen to me. The Alexander of today will never fall in love with you. Never!"

"The closer you get to him, the deeper he'll hurt you. Today it was drinking yourself half to death, last time it was that mob at the hospital—what about next time? Will you be this lucky next time?"

His voice grew more frantic, genuinely terrified that I would get hurt again.

"Leave him! Come to me. I promise you, from now on, I'll never let anyone hurt you again!"

As the words tumbled out, heartbroken, he pulled me straight into his arms.

I was too drunk and weak to resist; my feeble struggles couldn't break his hold.

"Julian, let me go... don't do this..."

Suddenly, a heavy fist swung in. Julian stumbled backward from the blow, crashing into a tree trunk.

Losing my balance, I fell back into a familiar embrace.

Alexander wrapped his arm around my waist, glaring at Julian with chilling hostility.

"And here I thought of you as a brother."

His voice was ice. "Poaching right under my nose."

Julian wiped the blood from his nose and straightened up, refusing to back down an inch.

"You don't know how to cherish a good woman, and you won't let anyone else treat her right?"

"So what if I'm stealing her away?"

"After the monstrous things you did at the hospital, I'm definitely taking her from you!"

Alexander gave a cold sneer, tightening his arm around my waist in utter disdain.

"You want to cherish her? You want to steal her? Fine."

"Get in line. It won't be your turn until I'm sick of playing with her."

He looked down at me in his arms and gave me a slight push forward, silently demanding I take a stand.

"Don't believe me? Ask her yourself. Even if I don't want her, does she have the guts to leave me?"

Standing between the two men, the night wind made me shiver violently.

Each of Alexander's words demeaned me more than the last, slicing into my heart until the pain felt almost numb.

Yet I turned to Julian, gritting my teeth as I forced out the words.

"It's my own fault."

"Unless I die, I will never leave him in this lifetime!"

Those words were meant less for Julian and more for myself.

I was forcing myself to hold on, using love to numb every ounce of pain Alexander inflicted upon me.

Julian froze, his face turning pale.

Alexander was satisfied. He steered me into the car, shoved me in, and stepped on the gas, leaving Julian far behind.

The car tore forward, speeding out of the city and only coming to a halt by the riverbank. The engine died, and silence settled over the car, broken only by the sound of the river lapping against the shore. Alexander didn't get out. He suddenly turned his head to look at me. "Does loving me make you suffer that much?" He had seen right through the agony buried beneath my words.

Looking out at the water ahead, I shook my head, replying with utter calm, "I told you I'd love you for a lifetime. A minute less, a single second less, wouldn't count as a lifetime."

A strange irritation flared in Alexander. "Enough!"

He snapped, "Watched too many movies? You've certainly got your lines memorized!"

"Putting on this deeply devoted act day in and day out—aren't you tired of it?"

He reached out and pinched my chin, forcing my face around to meet his gaze.

He wanted to find a crack in my eyes, a trace of an act.

Yet these eyes were so sincere and clean, so pure that it made his entire skin crawl with unease.

He had seen the eyes of far too many women—calculating, flattering, feigning deep affection—he could see through them in a glance.

Only these eyes eluded him. And if he couldn't see through them, he would tear them apart.

Either way, he would never believe I truly loved him!

"You claim you love me."

He pressed closer again, interrogating me coldly.

"Yet in your heart, you're thinking about the man you met six years ago, saying that was your most important day! Shannon, don't you make yourself sick?"

I froze for a moment, and then a bittersweet warmth swelled within my chest.

He was jealous.

He was starting to care about me.

I wanted to tell him that the man I had met six years ago was him, that he had simply forgotten.

"Alexander, listen to me. The person I met six years ago was actually—"

Before I could finish, his jealousy had completely consumed his reason.

He suddenly reclined my seat, rolling over to pin me down beneath him.

Then he pulled off his belt to bind my hands, lowering his head to crush his lips against mine.

"Mmph... stop it!"

Unable to overpower him, I bit him on instinct.

He let go with a hiss of pain, his rage flaring hotter.

"Biting me? Getting bold now, aren't you?"

He glared at me viciously, spewing insult after insult.

"Did Julian take good care of you this past week? Gave you the courage to act up?"

From the moment Julian took me from the hospital, I had been gone for a full seven days!

I was stunned.

Only then did I realize what he had assumed.

Yet before I could explain, Alexander brutally tore my clothes to shreds once again.

A punishing kiss descended upon me.

"Did he touch you here?"

The cold air and his rough kisses sent violent shivers through me.

"And here? And here? Did he touch you everywhere?"

Every single word trampled me straight into the dirt.

All my defenses and confessions jammed in my throat.

What was the point of explaining?

He never believed me anyway.

I threw my head back numbly, letting him force my legs apart.

Four years later, this was our second intimate encounter, and Alexander treated me just as violently as before.

As if there were some bone-deep hatred festering between us.

Much later, silence finally returned to the car.

Alexander got up and straightened his shirt, his face etched with disgust, not bothering to spare me even a glance.

I saw the hatred in the depths of his eyes.

I had imagined Alexander rejecting my love, or giving me the cold shoulder, but I had never imagined he would hate me.

It felt as if millions of ants were gnawing at my heart, hurting so deeply that I couldn't make a sound.

Pulling my tattered clothes tightly around myself to cover up, I spoke softly.

"Alexander, I didn't betray you."

He didn't reply. He started the car, driving the entire way in silence.