The temptation of my brother-in-law-Chapter 147 - One Hundred and Forty-Seven

Chapter One Hundred and Forty-Seven

Malachi’s POV

I was exhausted. The kind of bone-deep tired that came from running on three hours of sleep for a week straight, fueled by coffee and determination and the knowledge that everything was coming to a head whether I was ready or not.

The office was finally quiet. Everyone had gone home hours ago. I sat at my desk reviewing contracts that blurred together, numbers that stopped making sense, words that might as well have been in a foreign language for all the comprehension I could muster.

My door slammed open.

Travis stood there, swaying slightly, and for a second I thought he was drunk. But his eyes were clear. Clearer than they’d been in months. Which somehow made this worse.

He crossed the room in three strides and grabbed me by the throat, yanking me up from my chair with surprising strength for someone who’d spent years pickling himself in alcohol.

I could have broken his grip easily. Could have put him on the ground in seconds. Years in Dark City had taught me how to fight, how to hurt people, how to win.

But I didn’t move. Just looked at him with cold eyes and let the darkness I usually kept buried rise to the surface. Let him see exactly what I was capable of. Let him understand that the only reason I wasn’t destroying him right now was because I chose not to.

"Stay away from Alicia," Travis said, his voice shaking with rage. "I know what you’ve been doing. I know you’ve been sleeping with her."

I didn’t deny it. Didn’t see the point in lying when the truth was so much more satisfying.

"You’re right," I said, my voice calm despite his hand on my throat. "I have been. And she tastes fucking delicious."

Travis’s grip tightened for a second, then loosened as the words registered. I watched his face crumble, watched the anger drain away and get replaced by something that looked like despair.

"She’s my wife."

"In name only. You haven’t treated her like a wife in years. You’ve barely treated her like a person."

"That’s not true."

"Isn’t it? Tell me, Travis, when was the last time you looked at her and actually saw her? When was the last time you cared about what she wanted or needed or felt?"

He released my throat, stepped back. Looked suddenly smaller, diminished. Pathetic.

"I’m trying to be better," he said, but his voice lacked conviction. "I’ve been sober. I’ve been working on myself."

"Too little, too late."

"She’s still my wife."

"Not for long."

Something shifted in Travis’s expression. The broken despair hardened into something uglier. "You think you can just take her? You think she’ll choose you over me?"

"I don’t think. I know."

"You arrogant piece of shit. You’ve always thought you were better than me. Smarter. Stronger. More deserving."

"I am better than you."

My eyes must have gone black. I could feel it, that darkness rising up, that cold rage that had kept me alive in Dark City when everything else wanted me dead. Travis took an instinctive step back, recognition flickering across his face.

He’d seen this look before. We both knew what it meant.

"You hit her," I said, my voice dropping to something dangerous and soft. "For years. You came home drunk and took out your failures on someone who couldn’t fight back. You made her afraid in her own home."

"I was sick. Addicted. I didn’t mean—"

"I don’t care what you meant. I care what you did. And what you did was unforgivable."

"She never told you that. How do you—"

"I have eyes, Travis. I saw the bruises she tried to hide. I saw the way she flinched when you moved too fast. I saw everything you thought you were getting away with."

He looked sick now. Actually sick. Like the reality of his actions was finally hitting him.

"I was going to change. I am changing."

"You’re not changing fast enough. And Alicia’s not waiting around to see if you eventually become someone worth her time."

"So what? You’re just going to steal my wife?"

"I’m not stealing anything. She was never really yours. You lost her the first time you raised your hand to her. Everything since then has just been delayed consequences."

Travis’s hands clenched into fists at his sides. For a second I thought he might actually try to hit me. I almost hoped he would. Give me an excuse to put him down, to make him feel a fraction of the pain he’d inflicted on Alicia.

But he didn’t. Just stood there looking broken and pathetic and utterly defeated.

"Pa Wood won’t allow this," he said finally. "Divorce. You and Alicia. He’ll never approve."

"I don’t need his approval."

"Yes, you do. We all do. That’s how this family works."

"Then maybe it’s time the family learned to work differently." 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

I moved around my desk, closing the distance between us deliberately. Travis backed up but I kept coming until he was against the wall with nowhere to go.

"Listen carefully," I said, my voice still that dangerous quiet. "Alicia is mine now. Has been for a while, even if we were both too tangled up in obligations to admit it. You’re going to file for divorce. You’re going to give her everything she asks for. And you’re going to do it quietly without making a scene or trying to hurt her on the way out."

"And if I don’t?"

"Then I’ll destroy you. Not just your marriage. Everything. Your reputation, your position in the company, every comfortable thing you’ve taken for granted your entire life. I will systematically dismantle your existence until there’s nothing left."

"You can’t—"

"I can. And I will. Because I’ve spent years building power in places you don’t even know exist. I have resources you can’t imagine. And I will use every single one of them to bury you if you try to keep her trapped in this marriage."

Travis stared at me with something like horror. "You’re insane."

"No. I’m in love. There’s a difference."

"That’s not love. That’s obsession."

"Maybe. I don’t particularly care what you call it. All that matters is that Alicia is mine and you’re going to let her go."

I stepped back, gave him space to breathe. He slumped against the wall like someone had cut his strings.

"She deserves better than both of us," he said quietly.

"You’re right. She does. But she’s chosen me anyway. So I’m going to spend the rest of my life making sure I’m worthy of that choice."

"And if you fail? If you turn out to be just as bad as me?"

"Then she’ll leave. And I’ll let her. Because unlike you, I actually care about what she wants more than what I want to keep."

Travis pushed off the wall, moved toward the door. Stopped with his hand on the handle.

"I did love her, you know. At the beginning. Before everything went wrong."

"I don’t care."

"I know. But I need to say it. I loved her and I destroyed that love with my own stupidity and weakness. Don’t make the same mistake."

"I won’t."

"You say that now. But this family destroys everything it touches. Look at what happened to Emily. Look at what happened to all of us. You think you’re different, but you’re not. You’re a Blackwood just like the rest of us."

"Get out, Travis."

He left without another word. I stood there in my office, darkness still thrumming under my skin, hands shaking slightly from the adrenaline and rage I’d been holding back.

I should feel guilty. Should feel some kind of remorse for destroying my brother’s marriage, for taking his wife, for all the ways I’d crossed lines that couldn’t be uncrossed.

I felt nothing but satisfaction.

Alicia was mine. Travis knew it now. Soon everyone would know it.

And if destroying my brother was the price I had to pay for that, then it was a price I’d pay gladly. He’d forfeited any claim to sympathy the first time he’d hurt her.

I pulled out my phone. Texted Alicia.

Travis knows. About us. He confronted me.

Her response came quickly.

Are you okay?

I’m fine. He’s the one who’s broken.

What did you tell him?

The truth. That you’re mine now.

Three dots appeared. Disappeared. Appeared again.

We need to talk. Tomorrow. Your place.

I’ll pick you up from work.

I set the phone down and looked around my office. This space where I’d spent countless hours building an empire, making deals, consolidating power. All of it meaningless compared to the woman who’d somehow become the center of everything.

Travis had been right about one thing. This was obsession. Dangerous, all-consuming, the kind that made men do terrible things.

But I didn’t care. I’d been dangerous long before Alicia came into my life. She hadn’t made me a monster. She’d just given the monster something worth protecting.

And I would protect her. From Travis, from Pa Wood, from anyone who tried to come between us.