Chapter 136 Broken

Chapter 136 Broken
NANCY’S POV

Finally, Hudson raised his hand, calling a pause to his men’s assault on Ethan.

It took a second for me to realise, but I was shaking like a leaf on water. That was how petrified I was for Ethan.

Currently, he looks nothing like when he first approached me. His clothes were rumpled and stained with blood in different places, and there were cuts and bruises on his face.

The worst part of it was that I’d been the only one trying to stop Hudson. Everyone else just looked on with pale and frightful gazes. None of them had dared step forward, and only my hoarse cries filled the air.

Now it seemed so ironic that Hudson had asked me to come with him to keep up appearances, when he had just ruined whatever was left of the impression he was trying to portray.

When the man who had taken the lead in hitting Ethan finally stepped out, my shoulders dropped in relief, and my heart sank into my chest.

Ethan’s body sagged, and, anxious, I moved to step close to him but stopped myself halfway. More because I feared that Hudson would make his men hit him once more, than the fact that my waist was still held tightly in his grip.

While I was still debating my choice, Hudson dragged me behind him, pushing me back, then stepped closer to Ethan.

This time, I heard him loud and clear.

“Don’t you ever touch what’s mine again.

My chest tightened, and without giving a second thought to what I was doing, I stepped forward to explain.

“He didn’t…”

Hudson turned to me with a fixed look. The meaning behind it was clear.

I clamped my lips together and swallowed down the rest of what I wanted to say.

Ethan’s gaze shifted to me. Every trace of confusion in their depth was gone and they were filled with understanding.

As though he’d finally understood the dynamic between us.

I spotted the clench of his jaw even before he spoke. Too fast for me to stop him.

“She’s not an item, so how could she belong to you?”

“Ethan, No…”

I wanted to tell him not to talk back and warn him that Hudson was an unpredictable man who wasn’t easy to deal with, but before I could talk, Hudson’s guard stepped forward again and punched Ethan in the gut.

His lips parted to release a loud groan that was grating to my ears, and my body, which had barely just relaxed, tensed again.

“No,” I cried out, rushing forward, but Hudson’s arm wrapped around me, holding me back

“I’m putting on a scene just for you. Watch.”

“I’m not watching this.” I struggled against him. “Let me go.”

Another punch landed, and this time, Ethan fell to his knees.

“This is what happens when you disobey my instructions.”

Hudson went on, finally revealing to me the exact reason why he was doing this.

It was a way to break my resolve. He was trying to show me what would happen if I kept disobeying him and being stubborn. Ethan was just an innocent bystander who had gotten implicated.

Another thing I finally became aware of was that he didn’t care that eyes were watching. He was showing me that he was above the law, and even if he hurt someone I cared about out in the open like this, no one would step in.

Today, it was Ethan. Who knew who it would be some other time?

I couldn’t imagine it being someone else. I shook my head, negating the very idea.

“Stop,” I cried out brokenly. “That’s enough.”

“He didn’t do anything.”

“He didn’t have to. Touching you is enough for him to meet his death,” Hudson said in a low tone.

My heart trembled when I heard that, and my eyes snapped to his face.

He met my eyes unblinkingly, and the glint in them told me he wasn’t bluffing.

If need be, he would do exactly as he said.

His lips curled up a bit.

“You asked why I was after Landon earlier, right?”

“This is the reason.”

“He has polluted you by touching you, and to cleanse his touch off you, he needs to die.”

Terror crawled up my spine, and I stumbled backwards.

It took me a second to realise that he’d even released his grip on me. I was too still to notice.

“No…” I shook my head weakly. “You can’t…”

He nudged his head toward Ethan, as if telling me to look for myself and determine if he dared to or not.

I couldn’t look. I’d already seen Ethan’s state, and that was the thing. It could be worse.

From the corner of my eye, I could make out Ethan’s form on the ground, crumpled like a rag doll.

Bile crawled up my throat when I finally forced myself to look, and the blood came into view.

This was but the consequence of something so simple.

A harmless, enthusiastic hug at seeing someone he hadn’t seen in a long time, and he had suffered for it.

Because of me, he had to go through that.

Guilt collapsed inwards on me, and like a dam broken loose, my tears began to fall.

“This is all my fault…” I muttered inaudibly, causing myself for being so happy to see him.

If I knew this would happen, I would have pretended not to know him or at least have forced him away as soon as he approached me.

My tears fell harder, and soon enough, I broke into a sob that wracked my body.

I’d promised myself not to cry before Hudson, but with what happened tonight, I couldn’t help myself.

I wasn’t even crying for myself, I was crying for Ethan.

“Get him out of here,” I heard Hudson instruct his man, who lifted Ethan onto his shoulder like a bag of grain and walked out of the Hall.

It wasn’t until I couldn’t see them again through my blurred vision that my gaze finally dropped. When it did, I realised that the glass of wine I was holding earlier had dropped sometime while the commotion was ongoing and that a shard had cut through my toe.

The shards of broken glass on the ground somehow seemed to reflect how I felt on the inside.

It was more accurate to say that it reflected what Hudson wanted me to be-broken and docile, nodding to every one of his bidding.

Genuinely, I didn't want to be that woman. I feared that I would end up losing my determination and my will and that…

That scared me more than anything.