The State-Assigned Husband Chapter 06

The State-Assigned Husband Chapter 06

When the blindfold was ripped away, I found myself in an abandoned industrial warehouse. It looked like an old automotive garage.

The air was cold, damp, and thick with the smell of rust and concrete dust. Above, a fluorescent tube light flickered sickly before holding a steady, pale glow over the floor littered with broken

glass.

Ethan was thrown beside me.

His white shirt was filthy, a large bruise swelling on his shoulder, blood at the corner of his mouth.

“Does it hurt?” My voice trembled.

He smiled faintly, “No.”

With a bruise that size, it had to hurt.

Tears streamed down instantly.

“Don’t cry.” He lifted a hand, his fingers brushing my cheek. They were ice-cold. “We’re married

now. For better or worse.”

“How touching.”

Footsteps echoed down the stairs.

Liam walked down, wearing a dark jacket, his expression as calm as if he were here for a business

meeting.

He stopped in front of us, looking down at Ethan, then at me-his gaze lingering on the hand Ethan

had touched my face with.

Then he smiled.

A smile that sent chills down my spine.

“Mia Moore, you really have nerve.” He knelt down to meet my eyes. “Six years together, and you throw it all away. Married a man you’ve known less than two days?”

He pulled a red license from his pocket-mine and Ethan’s marriage license.

I must have dropped it.

He’d found it.

He opened it slowly, almost tenderly. His eyes scanned the names. Then, with deliberate slowness, he began to tear it. Page by page.

Shreds of red paper fell to the floor like snow.

“You-”

Liam stood up, taking a metal pipe from one of the men beside him.

“Ethan Carter.” He weighed the pipe in his hand. “Have you thought about how you want to die?”

“Liam!” I lunged forward, only to be grabbed from behind.

Ethan pushed himself up, one leg useless, dropping to one knee as he looked up at Liam.

His eyes were calm.

Calm enough to be terrifying.

“Hit me if you must,” he said.

Liam smiled.

He swung the pipe, crashing it into Ethan’s knee.

Crack.

A sound I’d never forget.

Ethan collapsed, trembling violently, sweat and blood mixing as they streamed down his face.

He didn’t make a sound.

Not one.

“Honey-” I screamed, struggling to break free.

Liam’s head snapped toward me. The cruel amusement vanished from his face, replaced by something twisted and raw. Pure, unadulterated fury.

“What did you call him?” His voice dropped to a whisper, sharp as a pin. “You called him honey?”

He raised the pipe again.

“No-please don’t-Liam, I’m begging you-”

Crack.

A second blow.

Ethan went down face-first. A dark, wet stain spread rapidly from his ruined knee, soaking into the

concrete.

“Stop!” I screamed. “Hit me instead! Come at me!”

Liam stared at me, his eyes red.

“You’re protecting him?” His voice shook, indistinguishable from anger or something else. “Mia,

we were together six years. You never looked at me the way you look at him.”

He threw the pipe aside, stepping closer to yank me into his arms.

His grip was too tight to break.

“Honey, I’m sorry.” He cried, tears soaking my shoulder. “I never meant to lie. I loved you too much I was scared to lose you. I divorced her, look-I really did-”

He fumbled in his pocket, pulling out the divorce decree and shoving it in front of my face.

“We’ll register tomorrow, okay? Let’s start over. I’ll give you everything-”

I turned my head to look at Ethan on the floor.

He lay motionless, blood pooling beneath him.

“Take him to the hospital first.” I said.

My voice was surprisingly calm.

Liam’s expression shifted.

From sorrow, to confusion, to fury.

“Even now, you’re thinking about him?”

He pushed me away, stepping back as if seeing a stranger.

Then he laughed.

A laugh that made my blood run cold.

“Alright.” The word was a blade. “You want to save him?”

He turned, taking a knife from one of the men.

“Then I’ll kill him right in front of you.”