This Heiress Doesn’t Fight Anymore Chapter 03

This Heiress Doesn’t Fight Anymore Chapter 03

It was dark by the time the yacht docked.

I’d slept deeply. No dreams. Nothing.

Voices outside the door dragged me back.

Brielle was crying.

“Bennett, just give it back to her. Maren worked so hard on that project. She’s going to resent me…”

Bennett’s voice went soft. The way it only ever did for her.

“She wouldn’t dare.”

“She lives off this family. Everything she has comes from this family. One project? She should be grateful we’re only taking one.”

“And that whole act today? That’s just her new strategy. She wants us to come begging.”

I opened the door.

The hallway went silent.

Graham was leaning against the wall with his hands in his pockets.

He looked up when I stepped out. Scoffed. “Oh, she lives.”

“Figured you were in there putting on another dramatic act.”

I ignored him.

I walked to the wet bar, filled a cup, and drank it slowly.

That was the thing about running on empty. Even words felt like a waste.

Graham stepped closer. His cologne hit me first: woody, expensive, suffocating.

He tapped the table twice, slow and deliberate.

“Drop the act.”

That voice was low and controlled, like he was doing me a favor just by speaking. “Apologize to Brielle. Make it sound like you mean it. I’ll talk Bennett into giving the project back.”

I met his eyes.

This was who Graham was.

He’d push you aside, then offer you just enough to keep you around.

He’d always assumed I was nothing without him. Without the Whitmores.

“Don’t bother.”

I set down the glass. “She wants it? It’s hers.”

Something shifted in Graham’s face.

“Enough, Maren.”

His voice dropped, edged with warning. “You think playing hard to get makes me want you more? It just makes you look desperate.”

I looked at him.

In my last life, I had loved this man like he was oxygen.

His stomach was sensitive, so I learned to cook his meals from scratch. I spent hours learning to cook his meals from scratch.

He said I moved like I’d grown up in a barn, so I hired an etiquette coach. Pushed myself to change everything about the way I looked.

I was someone who ran on fumes by nature. But I’d turned myself into a machine for him. Just to be enough.

And for what?

All Brielle had to do was whisper, “Graham, I’m scared of the dark,” and he’d leave me alone when I needed him most.

Now, looking at his face, all I felt was exhaustion.

“Graham.”

He lifted his chin. “Finally coming around?”

I reached for my left hand.

And pulled the diamond ring off my finger.

Our engagement ring.

I used to sleep in it, shower in it. Couldn’t stand the idea of taking it off.

I set it on the table and slid it toward him.

“Let’s call off the engagement.”

The hallway went dead silent.

Graham stared at the ring. For half a second, something real flickered across his face. Then it was gone, buried under a sneer.

He looked at me like I’d just told him the funniest thing he’d ever heard.

A low laugh escaped him.

“Maren.”

He picked up the ring, turning it between his fingers like it amused him. “All this over one project? Really?”

“Every time you pull this, it gets a little more embarrassing.”

Bennett let out a laugh. “You really think this works? That Graham’s going to panic and come running because you wave the engagement around like a weapon?”

Brielle pressed a hand to her mouth, eyes glistening again. “Maren, please don’t do this. I’ll give the project back. I don’t even want it…”

“Enough. All of you.”

I pressed my fingers against my temples.

The noise was splitting my skull.

I looked at Graham. “I’m not playing. We’re done.”

“I’ll make the breakup official tomorrow.”

I turned and walked toward the exit.

“Stop!”

Graham’s voice could have frozen the air.

He stepped toward me, stopping me before I could leave.

“Do you even hear yourself right now?”

His eyes locked on mine, hunting for the bluff.

There wasn’t one.

My eyes were empty. Just tired.

Graham’s jaw tightened. “One more chance. Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I’m sure.”

I pulled free. “Are we done? Because I’d really like to go home and sleep.”

Graham stared at me, his expression growing colder.

He dropped the ring onto the table with a sharp clatter.

“Fine. Fine!”

His sneer twisted into something bitter. “You’ve got nerve, I’ll give you that. But when you walk out that door, don’t you dare come crawling back.”

“Don’t worry.”

I yawned. “Crawling sounds like way too much effort.”

I walked off the yacht in my heels and didn’t look back.

Behind me, Bennett’s voice rose sharply. “Let her go! I give it a week before she’s begging! Cut her off! Let’s see how far she gets on her own!”

My fingers found the key in my pocket.

Everything I had built for myself was still mine.

Everything I’d quietly built for myself over the years, far from their reach.

More than enough to start over somewhere they couldn’t reach me.