<b>Chapter </b><b>176 </b>
HUNTER POV-
The words hit me so hard.
“The only reason she stays is because she doesn’t see a way out.” <fn7ec3> Th? link to the orig?n of this information r?sts ?n </fn7ec3>
Something snapped inside my chest. All the careful control I had built over years of boardroom meetings and nasty negotiations was crushed in <b>a </b>sh.
He thought he knew her better than I did? Thought he understood what we had?
The sane part of my brain–the part that usually kept me civilized….wentpletely quiet. All I could hear was my heartbeat and the echo of his words bouncing around in my skull.
Without warning, without thought, I swung.
My fist connected with his jaw with a satisfying crack that sent him struggling backward. He crashed into a high–top table, sending champagne flutes flying.
The sound of breaking ss mixed with gasps from the crowd around us.
For a split second, the entire room went dead silent.
Then chaos exploded.
ncey recovered faster than I had expected. He wiped blood from his lip and came at me with a growl, grabbing the front of my jacket and swinging back.
His knuckles caught my cheekbone, snapping my head to the side.
The effect cleared my vision just long enough to see the horror on Celine’s face before rage took over again.
We were grappling now, both of us throwing wild punches while trying to stay on our feet. My expensive suit jacket tore at the shoulder.
His cor was crooked, his tie hanging loose.
Around us, people were screaming.
“Security!” someone yelled, “Get security!”
I barely registered the voices. All my focus was on the man in front of me, onnding another hit, on making him hurt the way his words had
made me hurt.
We crashed into another table, sending more sses to the floor. The sound was deafening in the marble–floored space.
“Stop it!” Celine’s voice cut through the noise/high and desperate. “Hunter, stop!”
I could see her trying to get between us<b>, </b>but Caroline grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
“Stay away from them,” Caroline snapped. “You could get hurt.”
Could get hurt. The baby. Our baby.
The thought should have stopped me cold, should have brought me back to sanity. Instead, it only made me angrier.
This bastard was putting my family at risk with his righteous bullshit.
ncey caught me with an uppercut that made my ears ring. I tasted blood, felt my lip split open. But the pain just fed the fury burning <b>in </b><b>my </b>
chest.
I grabbed him by his shirt and threw him backward. He hit the wall hard, pictures rattling in their frames.
“You don’t know anything about us,” I snarled, moving on him again..
He pushed himself off the wall, his green eyes zing. “I know enough.”
We circled each other like animals. His left eye was already swelling, and I could feel my lip throbbing. Both of our suits were ruined, shirts torn and stained with blood.
The crowd around us had backed away, forming a wide circle. Cell phones were out, recording everything. Tomorrow, this will be all over social media and the gossip blogs.
I didn’t care.
ncey feinted left, then caught me in the ribs. The air rushed out of my lungs, but I managed tond a solid hit to his stomach in return. He doubled over, gasping.
“Enough!”
The voice was sharp,manding, and furious. We both froze.
Caroline stood at the edge of our makeshift arena, still in her beautiful champagne gown, but her face was white with rage.
“Security is on their way up,” she said, her voice deadly calm. “Both of you need to stop this right now, before you ruin more than just my engagement party.”
The words hit like ice water.
I looked around at the destruction we had caused–broken ss everywhere, overturned tables, guests pressed against the walls with their
phones out.
The string quartet had stopped ying. Even the waiters had stopped serving.
Caroline’s special night. The party she had nned for months.
And we had destroyed it.
The shame hit me all at once, overwhelming and crushing. What the hell was wrong with me? This wasn’t who I was supposed to be. I was
better than this.
Wasn’t I?
ncey straightened up slowly, wiping blood from his nose with the back of his hand. He looked around at the mess we had made, and I saw
my shame reflected in his expression.
“Caroline,” he started, his voice rough. “I’m sorry….”
“Don’t.” She held up one perfectly manicured hand. “Just don’t. Both of you need to leave. Now.”
Security guards appeared at that moment—threerge men in ck suits who looked like they could handle much worse than two wealthy idiots throwing punches at a party.
“Gentlemen,” the lead guard said politely, “we need you toe with us.”
I started to protest, but then I saw Celine.
She was standing behind Caroline, her face pale, her arms wrapped around herself protectively. She looked small and frightened andpletely disgusted.
With me.
“Celine….” I began.
“No.” Her voice was quiet, but it cut through all the noise and chaos like a de. “Just… no.”
The disappointment in her eyes was worse than any punch ncey hadnded.
She looked at me like she was seeing me clearly for the first time. Like she was seeing something she didn’t recognize. Something she didn’t
like.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” she whispered.
I opened my mouth to exin, to justify what I had done, to make her understand that he had pushed me too far.
But no words came out.
Because she was right. What was wrong with me?
ncey was being escorted toward the elevator by one of the guards. He looked back once, his swollen eye already turning purple, but his
gaze wasn’t on me.
It was on Celine, and the expression on his face was pure concern.
Even after our fight, even after I had bloodied his nose, he was worried about her.
The realization hit me like another punch.
“Take him home,” Caroline said to Celine, her voice cold as winter. “Before he embarrasses himself any more than he already has.”
She wasn’t talking to me. She was talking around me, like I wasn’t even there.
Like I didn’t matter.
“This was supposed to be the happiest day of my life,” Caroline continued, and for the first time, herposure cracked slightly.
“My engagement party. And you…” She looked at me with something that might have been pity. “You turned it into a circus.”
The guards were waiting patiently for me toe with them voluntarily.
Around us, the party was slowly trying to resume–waiters cleaning up broken ss, guests returning to their conversations with excited whispers about what they’d just witnessed.
But the magic was broken. The elegant evening Caroline had nned was ruined.
Because of me.
Celine approached slowly, like she was approaching a dangerous animal. Maybe that’s exactly what I was.
“Come on,” she said quietly, not quite meeting my eyes. “Let’s go home.”
I nodded, suddenly exhausted.
The adrenaline was fading, leaving behind a bone–deep tiredness and the beginning of what I knew would be a stupendous headache.
As we walked toward the elevator, I could feel every eye in the room on us. The whispers followed us like a wake.
“Hunter, are you okay?” Mia called.
“Not now Mia” Celine suddenly said leaving me staring at her stunned.
“I was just worried about him” Mia spoke again clearly not happy with the way Celine spoke.
“For Christ’s sake…Read the room” That word alone stops her.
“Let’s go hunter,” Celine said without so much as looking at me. The elevator doors closed with a soft ding, and suddenly we were alone.
Celine stood as far from me as possible in the small space, her reflection in the shiny doors showing a woman who looked tired and sad and
“He didn’t lose control,” I thought, remembering something my father had told me years ago after one of his spectacr public failures.
“He gave it away.”
I had given it away. All of it. My reputation, my dignity, Caroline’s respect, and worst of all….Celine’s trust.
For what? Because another man had made herugh? Because she’d seemed happy in a way that didn’t revolve around me?
The elevator came down in silence, carrying us away from the wreckage I had created and toward a conversation I wasn’t ready to have.
But ready or not, I could see iting.
And I had a terrible feeling I wasn’t going to like what Celine had to say.