I Got Revenge When They Drew The Same Room Key Chapter 06

I Got Revenge When They Drew The Same Room Key Chapter 06

Gasps rippled through the crowd.

Nathaniel dodged, the punch just glancing off his cheekbone.

Before Julian could pull back, Nathaniel caught his wrist and wrenched it sideways.

They both crashed into the wrought-iron railing outside the courthouse.

The metal rattled violently from the impact.

Julian’s eyes were bloodshot, something feral and wild breaking loose behind them.

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

“What gives you the right to marry her?”

Nathaniel gave a dark laugh.

“Maybe because she wanted to.”

“Because I didn’t send her down to the lobby to buy condoms for me and my mistress last night.”

Julian went dead rigid.

Every pair of eyes around them shifted to Chloe.

Chloe’s face lost all its color, and she ducked her head to hide from the stares.

Julian looked like he’d been slapped publicly. He roared and swung at Nathaniel again.

I stepped forward before I even knew what I was doing, shoving myself between them.

“Enough.”

Julian’s fist stopped in mid-air.

He looked at me, his entire body going completely still.

“Hazel.”

His voice actually cracked.

“Now you’re protecting him?”

The words hit a nerve buried deep, dragging me back to the past.

Back when we were kids.

The Crofts and the Reeds were at each other’s throats over a commercial development deal.

At one family dinner, Julian and Nathaniel got into a brawl out in the gardens.

Nathaniel had Julian pinned against the stone wall, his face bloody, but Julian wouldn’t give up.

I heard the noise and ran over just in time to see Nathaniel pull his fist back for another swing.

I didn’t think. I threw myself right in front of Julian.

The punch didn’t land on Julian. It clipped my shoulder instead, hard.

The pain flared, sharp enough to make me burst into tears.

But I just spread my arms wide in front of Julian and screamed at Nathaniel.

“Don’t you touch him!”

Nathaniel couldn’t have been more than six or seven.

His face was smeared with dirt, his lip split, and he just stood there staring at me.

He scoffed under his breath and dropped his fist.

“Hazel.”

“You really know how to pick sides.”

Julian grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him.

He clumsily rubbed my shoulder where the punch had landed.

“Are you crazy? What were you thinking?”

“Next time there’s a fight, you run the other way, got it?”

I shook my head, dead serious.

“I won’t run.”

“If anyone picks on you, I’ll fight them off.”

Julian looked at me then, and his whole face softened.

He said, “Hazel.”

I’ll protect you too. Always”

But now.

I stood in front of Nathaniel.

The way Julian looked at me now, it was like watching something inside him shatter.

His voice was barely above a whisper.

“You used to always protect me.”

I met his gaze flatly.

“Yes.”

“And you used to protect me, too.”

Julian flinched like I’d physically struck him.

I didn’t stop.

“But last night, the one you protected was Chloe.”

“And just now, the one standing next to you was Chloe.”

“You don’t get to have it both ways, Julian.”

“You chose her. So don’t ask me why I stopped choosing you.”

He couldn’t even force out a syllable.

Nathaniel looked down at me, and something in his usually cold expression softened.

He reached out and wrapped his hand around my wrist, gently.

It wasn’t possessive. It wasn’t a show for the crowd.

He was just putting himself between me and Julian’s hand, which was still hanging in the air.

“Let’s go.”

I nodded.

As I passed him, Julian lunged and grabbed my hand.

“Hazel.”

“I don’t accept this.

“Last night you were still going to marry me.”

“How could you marry someone else just like that?”

I looked down at his hand clamped tightly around mine.

There was a time when that grip would have made me cave.

No matter how badly he’d hurt me, all he had to do was soften his voice, and I’d talk myself out of leaving.

“Just let it go.”

“He’s just proud, that’s all.”

“It’s not that he doesn’t love me.”

But now I peeled his fingers off my wrist, one by one, and felt absolutely nothing.