Chapter 81 Think It Over

Chapter 81 Think It Over
Benjamin's POV

I watched her beg, fury simmering beneath my calm exterior, but I let her continue. There was something almost satisfying about watching her humiliate herself further with every word, stripping away that carefully polished exterior she had worn for years in public.

"You can punish me," she said, her voice trembling. "Do whatever you want to me... Just don't touch him. Please Benjamin, he has nothing to do with any of this. He's innocent in all of it."

My silence only seemed to unravel her further. She kept talking, desperate words spilling out one after another, each one testing my patience a little more than the last, until I could barely stand listening to her plead for a man who meant nothing to me.

I laughed, sharp and humorless, the sound scraping through the tense air of the study.

"Have you no shame at all?" I asked, glaring at her. "Sleeping with a man young enough to be your son, and now standing here in my study, begging for his life like he's worth something to you beyond whatever pleasure he gives you."

Something shifted in Winnie's expression at that, her face twisting from panic into something entirely different.

Her eyes hardened, the fear from moments ago replaced suddenly with something sharper. Hatred, unmistakable and raw, burned in her gaze as she pushed herself off the floor and stood directly in front of me, closer than she had dared come in years.

"What gives you the right to call me shameless? After everything you've put me through?" she snapped.

I raised an eyebrow, momentarily caught off guard by her sudden defiance.

"Did you expect me to stay lonely for the rest of my life?" she continued, her voice rising with years of buried resentment finally spilling free. "You never once willingly touched me, Benjamin. Not once, in all these years of marriage. The only time it ever happened, you were drunk out of your mind, barely aware of your own name. And the next morning, do you remember what you did?"

I said nothing, though I remembered exactly what she was referring to, the memory surfacing uninvited.

"You had the entire bed burned," she said, her voice cracking with old humiliation. "Like I was some cheap woman you picked up off the street. Like sharing a bed with me for one night was something you needed to erase completely… like I was filth."

"You knew what you were getting into," I said flatly, refusing to let her guilt trip work on me. "I told you clearly before the marriage that I wouldn't fulfill any marital obligations….You agreed to those terms yourself."

"How was I supposed to know that your heart would never waver? Not even once, in all these years? I thought maybe, eventually, something would change between us. I was foolish enough to hope." she yelled, tears mixing with fury now.

I felt my own anger rising to meet hers.

"I only married you," I said, my voice growing colder with every word, "because of the promise I made to your late husband. He was my closest friend, and when he died, he asked me to look after you and Haley. That promise is the only reason either of you have lived comfortably under my roof all these years, wanting for nothing."

Winnie's face paled slightly, but her fury didn't fade entirely.

"I've seen every trick you've pulled over the years," I continued. "The affairs, the lies and the manipulation. I chose to forgive you every single time, because of that promise. Because I respected the man who asked it of me, and I refused to break my word to him no matter how many times you tested my patience."

"And now?" she asked, her voice quieter now, almost fearful again.

"Now I'm done," I said simply.

The room fell silent for a moment, the weight of those two words settling heavily between us.

Winnie stared at me, searching my face for any sign of what I meant by that, her earlier defiance faltering slightly under the calm certainty in my tone.

"Benjamin," she said carefully, "what are you saying?"

I didn't answer her directly. Instead, I walked back around my desk and pressed the intercom button, my movements calm and unhurried despite everything that had just been said between us.

"Marcus," I said. "Come in here."

The door opened within seconds. Marcus must have been waiting outside, anticipating exactly this moment, always attuned to whatever I might need before I even asked for it.

"Yes, Boss?" he asked, stepping into the room, his eyes flicking briefly toward Winnie's tear-streaked face before returning to me.

"Take Winnie to where Haley is being kept," I said. "She'll be staying there until I say otherwise."

Winnie's eyes widened with alarm. "Benjamin, what are you talking about? You can't just…"

"You wanted to know where your daughter was," I said, cutting her off. "There you have it….You'll be joining her."

"I didn't do anything wrong that requires this kind of punishment," she protested, her voice rising in panic now, and her hands gesturing wildly. "Whatever happened with Haley isn't my fault…I don't even know what she did to deserve this."

"This isn't just about Haley," I said. "This is about you and about everything you've hidden from me for years, while pretending to be the perfect wife in front of every camera and every gathering we've ever attended together, smiling for the cameras like nothing was wrong."

She opened her mouth to argue further, but I raised a hand, silencing her instantly.

"You have plenty of time now to think over everything…Every decision that led us to this exact moment. Consider it an opportunity for self reflection, one you've clearly needed for quite some time."

Marcus stepped forward and gently took hold of Winnie's arm. She flinched at the contact, though she didn't fight him the way Haley had fought the guards earlier.

"This isn't over," she said, glaring at me one final time as Marcus guided her toward the door. "You'll regret this, Benjamin…Mark my words."

I said nothing, watching calmly as Marcus escorted her out of the study, her protests growing fainter as they moved further down the hallway.

Once the door closed behind them, I let out a slow breath, rubbing my temples with two fingers.

How exhausting…

Between Eva's escape, Winnie's affair, and Haley's reckless scheming, my thoughts were spiraling far beyond anything I had planned for when I first sat down at this desk.

And somewhere out there, Ethan was likely already plotting his next move against me, gathering his people, preparing for whatever came next in this war I had already set into motion.