The temptation of my brother-in-law-Chapter 135 - One Hundred and Thirty-Five

Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Five

Cecilia’s POV

I’d been hiding in my apartment for days. Ever since my uncles had shown up at my door that first time with their threats and their lawyers and their barely concealed rage at my father’s will. The walls of this place had started to feel smaller with each passing day, pressing in on me until I could barely breathe without feeling trapped.

Malachi was used to this kind of life. I knew that much about him. He’d spent years in Dark City after Emily died, living in the shadows, building something dangerous and powerful away from everyone who knew him. He seemed comfortable in darkness, like he’d made peace with it in a way I never could.

I remembered Emily from back then, though we weren’t close. My father had business with Pa Wood, which meant I’d see the Blackwoods at occasional gatherings. Emily had been beautiful. Not just pretty, but luminous in a way that made everyone else fade into the background. I’d envied her so much. She had Malachi and Travis both circling around her like devoted guards, ready to protect her from anything.

I’d been young then, maybe fifteen, but old enough to understand what it meant to want something you couldn’t have. I’d wanted what Emily had. The attention, the protection, the way Malachi looked at her like she mattered more than anything else in the world.

Now Emily was dead and I was here, supposedly under Malachi’s protection, and he looked at me like I was an obligation he’d inherited along with a dying man’s last request. Nothing more.

I loved him anyway. Had loved him for years even when it was pointless, even when he disappeared into Dark City, even now when he treated me with polite distance and nothing else. There was something about his reserve that drew me in, the way he never showed emotion or weakness, the way he seemed untouchable. I kept thinking if I was patient enough, if I proved myself worthy enough, he’d eventually see me. Really see me.

But he never did.

I couldn’t spend another day locked in this apartment. The walls were suffocating me and my thoughts were getting darker with each passing hour. I needed to feel normal again, needed to do something mundane like buy groceries and pretend my life wasn’t falling apart.

The store was close, just a ten minute drive. Broad daylight. Safe neighborhood. Nothing could happen in broad daylight.

I was loading bags into my car when I felt hands on me.

One grabbed my arm, another clamped over my mouth before I could scream. I was being dragged backward, my feet scraping against pavement as I tried to fight, tried to make noise, tried to do anything.

A van. They shoved me into a van and the door slammed shut.

There were three of them. Big men I’d never seen before. Not my uncles. Strangers. And the way they looked at me made my skin crawl, made something primal and terrified wake up in my chest.

"Please," I tried to say through the hand still covering my mouth. "Please, whatever you want, I have money, I can pay you."

"We know you have money," one of them said. He had a scar across his cheek and eyes that looked dead. "That’s why we’re here. Your uncles are paying good money for us to convince you to sign some papers."

So my uncles had hired them. But these men didn’t look like lawyers or businessmen. They looked like criminals, like the kind of people who did terrible things for money and didn’t lose sleep over it.

"I’ll pay you more," I said quickly, my voice shaking. "Whatever they’re paying, I’ll double it. Triple it. Just let me go."

Scar-face laughed. "Your uncles are paying fifty grand each. You got a hundred and fifty thousand in cash lying around?"

I didn’t. Most of my father’s money was tied up in trusts and legal battles, inaccessible until the inheritance case was resolved.

"I can get it. Give me a few days, I can get you the money."

"We don’t have a few days. We’re supposed to deliver you to your uncles in an hour. Whether you’re cooperative or not."

The way he said it made my stomach turn. The way all three of them were looking at me, with hunger and something darker underneath.

"Although," another one said, younger with a shaved head, "we’ve got time to kill. And she’s real pretty, isn’t she? Be a shame to waste that."

Oh god. Oh god no.

"Don’t," I said, hating how my voice cracked, how terrified I sounded. "Please don’t."

"Relax," Scar-face said. "We’re professionals. We don’t do anything that’ll mark up the merchandise. But nobody said we couldn’t have a little fun first."

He reached for me and I scrambled backward, pressing myself against the van’s side, trying to make myself smaller, trying to disappear. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be real.

The van was moving now, driving somewhere, and I was trapped with three men who looked at me like I was something they could use and throw away. My heart was hammering so hard I thought it might burst. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think past the terror flooding my system.

"Please," I whispered. "Please don’t do this."

Time became weird after that. I don’t know how long we drove. Could have been twenty minutes or two hours. I just sat there pressed against the wall while they talked about me like I wasn’t there, making comments that made my skin crawl, debating whether they had time to do what they wanted before delivering me.

Then the van stopped. Suddenly. Hard enough that we all lurched forward.

The back doors flew open and there was Malachi. Rose beside him, both of them looking like avenging angels, both of them armed.

What happened next was fast. Too fast to process. Gunshots. Shouting. Rose moving like she wasn’t quite human, taking down two of the men before they could react. Malachi handling Scar-face with brutal efficiency that looked practiced, like he’d done this a thousand times.

When it was over, all three men were on the ground. I couldn’t tell if they were dead or just unconscious and I didn’t care.

Malachi looked at me and for a second I saw something in his eyes. Something that might have been concern or anger or both. But it was gone so fast I might have imagined it.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

This was it. This was my chance. If I said no, if I pretended to be weaker than I was, he’d have to carry me. He’d have to touch me. And maybe that physical contact would break through whatever wall he’d built between us. Maybe he’d realize I needed him, that I’d been terrified, that I wanted him to hold me and tell me everything would be okay.

"No," I said, letting my legs buckle slightly. It wasn’t entirely a lie. I was shaking so badly I wasn’t sure I could walk anyway. "I don’t think I can. I’m dizzy, everything’s spinning, I can’t—"

"Rose, can you carry her to the car?"

The words hit me like ice water. He wasn’t going to touch me. Wasn’t going to carry me. Was passing me off to Rose like I was cargo.

Rose picked me up without comment. She was surprisingly strong, carrying me like I weighed nothing while Malachi walked ahead already on his phone making calls, handling logistics, not looking back once to see if I was okay.

The drive to my apartment was silent. I sat in the back seat staring at the back of Malachi’s head, willing him to turn around, to say something, to acknowledge that I’d just been kidnapped and almost worse.

He didn’t.

When we pulled up to my building, Rose helped me out. Supported my weight even though I could have walked fine if I’d admitted the truth. Walked me to the entrance while Malachi stayed in the car making more calls.

"Take care of yourself," Rose said once we were inside the lobby. Her voice was cold, clipped, professional. Like she was checking off a task from a list.

Then she was gone. Just turned and walked away, leaving me standing there alone.

I made it to my apartment, my legs working perfectly fine despite my earlier claims. Locked every lock on the door. Checked the windows. Then collapsed on my couch and finally let myself fall apart.

I cried until I had no tears left, until my throat hurt and my eyes were swollen. Cried for how scared I’d been, for what almost happened, for the way Malachi couldn’t even be bothered to touch me, for loving someone who would never love me back.

When I finally stopped, when I’d exhausted myself completely, I noticed Rose had left her jacket on my couch. She must have put it there when she helped me inside.

I picked it up to hang it somewhere. That’s when something fell out of the pocket.

A necklace. Delicate gold chain with a distinctive pendant. The design was unusual, almost like interlocking letters or symbols, something custom-made and expensive.

It was beautiful. The kind of jewelry you didn’t find in regular stores, the kind that meant something specific to someone.

I held it up to the light, watching how the pendant caught the glow from my lamp. Where had Rose gotten something like this? It seemed too personal, too meaningful to just be something she’d bought for herself.

I set it on my coffee table, made a mental note to return it to her tomorrow. She’d probably want it back. Something that unique wasn’t the kind of thing you’d want to lose.

But as I stared at it, something nagged at the back of my mind. Something about the design felt familiar, like I’d seen it before somewhere. But I was too exhausted, too emotionally destroyed to figure out where.

I’d think about it tomorrow. Tonight I just needed to sleep and try to forget what almost happened in that van.

I left the necklace on the table, went to my bedroom, and didn’t even bother changing clothes before crawling under the covers.

But I couldn’t stop thinking about how Malachi had refused to touch me. How he’d looked at me with those cold eyes and handed me off to someone else. How he’d saved me but couldn’t be bothered to care.

And somewhere in the back of my mind, that necklace kept glowing, its unusual pendant catching imaginary light, familiar in a way I couldn’t quite place.