Free Web NovelChapter 331: Chapter 331
Nathan’s POV
My spine straightened instinctively, like a blade half-drawn from its sheath. One wrong move, and I’d let my wolf take over.
He didn’t seem to hear me.
Instead, his jaw clenched, teeth grinding as he stared past me, muttering like a madman.
"Why..."
The word scraped out of his throat, raw and broken. Then his eyes snapped to mine.
"Why won’t she even look at me..." His voice cracked, then rose sharply. "Even after divorcing you?!"
In a sudden burst of movement, he lunged forward and grabbed my collar, his fingers digging into my coat.
My wolf snarled.
Up close, I saw it clearly now, his eyes were completely bloodshot, veins branching outward like crimson roots, spreading until there was almost no white left. That wasn’t just alcohol.
That was obsession eating him alive.
I grabbed his wrist, my grip iron-hard, claws threatening to break through my skin as I fought the urge to shift right there in front of him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?!" I growled, my voice vibrating with a warning only another predator could understand. freewёbn૦νeɭ.com
He should have backed away.
But Richard only let out low, cracked, and unhinged laugh.
And in that moment, I knew this wasn’t just a drunken confrontation.
It was the beginning of something ugly.
I drove my foot straight into his chest.
The movement was fast and clean, muscle memory and instinct working together. Richard was drunk, off-balance, and completely unprepared. He flew backward and hit the ground hard. The sharp crack of bone echoed in the empty space.
He groaned, pain rippling through him, but the jealousy in his eyes only burned brighter.
He tried to stand but failed. His body shook, his bones refusing to obey, and he collapsed back onto the pavement.
"Did you go see her?" The thought hit me like lightning, and my face darkened.
I crouched in front of him and grabbed his collar again, hauling him close. My shadow swallowed him whole.
"What’s your business if I did?" he sneered, lifting his head with a hysterical laugh. "You’re divorced."
I stared down at him, my wolf roaring inside my chest. The blood in my veins rioted, howling with rage and injustice.
"How am I inferior to you...?" he muttered hoarsely, his voice crawling out of him like a venomous ghost.
"Because your methods are despicable," I said coldly. "And what happened a year ago...you were involved. Aria and I won’t let you get away with it."
My gaze cut into him like twin blades.
His body jerked.
He looked up sharply. "How do you know? Why would you say that?"
I laughed, low and cold. The air around us seemed to freeze.
"You were the biggest beneficiary," I said. "And I believe Aria. That alone makes you suspect."
He stared at me for a second, then burst out laughing.
"You believe her?"
"Hahaha!"
He laughed until his shoulders shook, until he bent forward like he couldn’t even hold himself upright anymore.
I watched him carefully, every feral instinct alert.
Then, just as suddenly, the laughter died.
"Nathan," he said lightly, emptily, "do you really think you’ll ever find the truth about that year? If you could have, you would’ve produced evidence back when you told the media you’d help her."
My hands clenched.
"So it really was you."
His body froze.
He snapped his head up, eyes wide. "You were tricking me?!"
My restraint shattered.
I yanked him up by the collar, forcing him to meet my gaze. My voice carried the icy winds of the northwest frontier. It was cold, merciless and absolute.
"For your selfish schemes, you sent Aria to prison while she was pregnant?"
The words tasted like blood.
Every free moment I’d had while she was gone, I’d spent revisiting that year. Every report, every record, every grainy image of her suffering.
My heart had been carved apart again and again.
And yet, even then, I had clung to the so-called "evidence," to the belief that she had stolen Hemsworth Group’s secrets.
Only recently had doubt begun gnawing at me.
Now, the truth stood in front of me.
The veins on my hands bulged as my wolf snarled.
"You claim to love her?" I growled. "Is this how you treat her?"
Each word branded him. Richard trembled, but the obsession in his eyes didn’t fade.
"So what?" he spat. "I won. Cowen Group is Asterfell’s second-largest company. Aria is out of prison. And you’re divorced."
His smile twisted.
"Even if that child is yours, she won’t give her to you. She won’t let the child acknowledge you. As long as she agrees, she can be my luna right now."
My vision went red.
"I only made her spend eighteen months in prison," he said lightly. "So what?"
That was it.
I punched him.
My fist slammed into his face, straight across the nose. The impact snapped his head to the side. Blood poured instantly, thick and dark.
He sat there stunned, touching his nose, staring at the blood on his fingers.
"You hit me?" he hissed, his eyes blazing. "What right do you have to hit me?"
Then he laughed bitterly.
"Nathan, don’t pretend to be a good man now. Do you think you are any different from me? If you really loved her, if you really believed her, with your power, how could she ever have gone to prison?"
