I Was His Wife, Then His Widow, Then No One's But My Own novel Chapter 378

She slowly collapsed to the floor, a suffocating wave of despair washing over her. She threw her head back, the tears still fresh on her cheeks, but her eyes ignited with a venomous, psychotic gleam.

If he was going to play it this way, he couldn't blame her for crossing the line.

Finnegan floored the gas pedal, weaving recklessly through traffic until he reached the Vance Institute. The rioters had finally been wrangled by the security guards, leaving the pavement completely coated in smashed eggs and rotting garbage.

He was just about to sprint into the lobby when a sleek black Mercedes-Maybach glided to a smooth halt across the street.

The driver's door popped open, and Xander stepped out. Wrapped in a sharp charcoal overcoat, his presence radiated a lethal, freezing authority. The two men locked eyes from across the asphalt, the tension instantly sucking the oxygen out of the air.

Xander closed the distance, his expression carved from stone. "What exactly are you doing here?"

Finnegan sneered, his eyes practically shooting daggers. "I'm here for Nora. Mind your own business."

Xander looked at him as if he had just delivered the punchline to a pathetic joke. "When you sat back and gave Seraphina the green light to leak those photos, did you even pause to consider the hell Nora would face this morning? Do you want to try wearing a coat drenched in rotten vegetables to see how it feels?"

Finnegan's face instantly went chalk white. He opened his mouth to defend himself, but Xander mercilessly cut him off. Closing the gap, Xander towered over him, his suffocating aura bearing down with crushing weight. "Do you honestly believe you have the right to stand in front of her right now?"

Finnegan's fists cracked as he aggressively stepped into Xander's personal space. "Don't stand there and play the moral saint, Xander. If you hadn't manipulated your way into Nora's life when she was vulnerable, none of this would be happening. You are the sole reason she's being targeted."

Xander's eyes completely flatlined into predatory voids. "Nora is not a piece of property owned by the Fletcher family. She answers to no one about who she chooses to be with. If you actually gave a damn about her, you wouldn't have used this kind of cowardly tactic to feed her to the wolves."

Murderous tension sparked violently between the two titans, neither man willing to surrender a single inch of ground.

Right at that moment, Nora shoved the glass doors open. Standing at the top of the concrete steps, her gaze swept over the two men with absolute, freezing exhaustion. She couldn't stomach the sight of them fighting over her like a trophy.

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