Chapter 70 She'll take your entire life
CHAPTER 70: She'll take your entire life
Vera
The silence that followed Silas’s entrance was fragile, a thin sheet of ice waiting for the first heavy blow to shatter it. Claudia didn't waste a heartbeat; ready to land the first blow, she stepped toward her brother, her murderous glare pointed at Natalie with lethal precision.
“You’re just in time, brother,” she began, her voice vibrating with jagged fury. “Perhaps you should educate your besotted shadow on the concept of respect.”
Natalie neither moved nor reacted, just like Silas who remained a towering, immovable force in the room.
I sat there stiffly, willing myself not to shed tears in the presence of these people.
“She had the boldness to sit at your table and speak to your wife like she was less than a servant,” Claudia hissed. “Without a shred of provocation on Vera’s part.”
Silas’s reply was a perfunctory, sweeping glance toward me. It lasted only a second, yet felt like a lifetime of scrutiny. He finally looked away, dismissively. Almost like he had deliberated the matter and found it unimportant.
He said absolutely nothing.
Natalie set her porcelain cup down with a soft, deliberate click. She turned her head in his direction, calm, and unruffled.
“I was simply being realistic, Silas,” she defended, her voice a smooth balm against Claudia’s heat.
“Realistic?” Claudia mocked.
“I only told Vera that you were unavailable,” Natalie continued, ignoring her. “That you couldn't possibly go to the hospital today given the LutherCorp deadlines—”
“What hospital? What's going on?” He cut in sharply, his gaze flying across to me. Finally a reaction from him.
All pairs of eyes turned in my direction.
“The doctor asked that I come in with you today,” I managed to say without muttering. “I was going to ask you.”
“I was merely managing expectations,” Natalie said.
“Whose expectations?” Claudia challenged. “Yours or hers?”
“This has nothing to do with me, Claudia,” Natalie replied. “It's just business. But I doubt that'll make sense to you.”
Claudia scoffed. “And you think your shameful behaviour makes sense?” she sneered. “What are you? His planner or his assistant?”
Natalie stared at her. “I'm just doing my job,” she replied simply.
“You were overstepping,” Claudia countered.
Despite the coldness of the morning and the lingering soreness in my limbs, a strange treacherous hope bloomed in my chest, despite the pain gripping my heart.
After the intensity of the night before…after the way he had held me. The way he had possessed and claimed my body and the entirety of all that I am, I foolishly expected him to take my side, even for once against Natalie.
But along with that hope was a cold fear that reminded me that I already knew how this would end.
Yet I waited for him to snap at Natalie. I waited for him to prove I was more than a purchased body to achieve a goal…a means to an end.
Silas adjusted his cuffs. His expression was devoid of the fire that had consumed us hours ago and something told me that I was about to be humiliated.
“We're wasting time,” he stated flatly.
The words cut through my hope like a serrated blade.
My heart skipped a beat, then took a plunge.
“The legal team is waiting,” he added, looking at Natalie. “Let’s go.”
He neither addressed the insult. Neither did he defend my name and scold Natalie. He didn't even say anything about the hospital visit. Even though I couldn't really hold the latter against him, it still stung.
He simply stepped aside to let Natalie pass. And the sting of that dismissal was more painful than any physical mark on my skin.
“Are you serious?” Claudia’s voice rose to a shriek of disbelief. “You’re actually going to do this? You’re siding with your dog over your own wife?”
“Claudia,” her brother warned, his voice dropping an octave.
“She is carrying a Rutherford, Silas! Your child, for god's sake,” she screamed, her face contorting as she stared at her brother. “And you’re treating her like an inconvenience while you play office with this woman?”
Natalie’s eyes flashed. Her mouth opened, ready to fire a retort I knew would be expertly cruel.
Silas raised a single, commanding hand, silencing her instantly. She retreated, but her eyes blazed with the fire she couldn't unleash.
Silas turned to his sister, his eyes darkening with a lethal warning.
“Claudia, I am only going to say this once,” he began, his voice dropping dangerously. “I have a lot to handle about my work, and I will not condone any theatrics from you,” he snapped. “Control yourself. You're not a child.”
“Silas, she—”
“If you cannot behave as you should,” he interrupted, “you are most welcome to return to Chauncey’s accommodation.”
The air left the room. Claudia looked as if she’d been slapped. Silas finally turned his head toward me, his eyes as cold and distant as winter stars.
“Have the driver drive you to the hospital,” he said. It sounded like an afterthought. “I have a lot to do at the office.”
Without another word, he turned on his heel and walked out.
Natalie picked her things and followed suit behind him, the silent shadow Claudia had named her.
Claudia stood there, her chest heaving as she watched them disappear.
“Claudia…are you okay?” I asked carefully. She had defended me, and I was grateful for it.
She turned to me, her eyes shimmering with a mix of pity and rage.
“A word of advice, Vera,” she said. “Don't you ever let that woman push you around, ever,” she hissed, her voice low.
I couldn't find my voice. I felt small, discarded.
What could I do?
In Silas’s eyes, I was nothing more than a criminal. I should be grateful for all that he's done, despite knowing what happened in the past. But I couldn't understand why I was feeling this way.
“Remember this,” she moved closer. “If you let that woman take an inch, she will take your entire life. Remember that.”
Before I could respond, she stormed out of the room.