Page 106 of Xander

Xander snarled and would have lunged if Joe, and now Jasper, hadn’t held him back.

“Xander already spoke to us,” Caden said in a hard tone. “He’s told us about the situation.”

“Oh really?” Henry said, with a nasty little laugh. “Did he tell you about everything he’s gotten up to at the behest of that scheming whore⁠—”

“I told them all about your fake marriage,” Xander cut in. “And how you took advantage of Jordan. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it? To control Jordan. You could have given up your guardianship and married her, but that wasn’t what you wanted. You wanted someone to control, someone with no power against you. We’re all just pawns to you. Useful—until we weren’t. Until we decided we didn’t want to be controlled anymore.”

“This is going to look terrible if it gets out,” Caden said dispassionately. “This is a family company, after all. What were you thinking with this Jerry Springer shit?”

“And I’m sure there’ll be some jail time involved for the whole wife-beating thing,” Jasper pointed out angrily.

“Very few companies survive a CEO with this kind of scandal to their name,” Caden added.

“You’ve never been as subtle as you think you are,” Joe said offhandedly. “If word gets out about how you had all of us attend your fake marriage, no amount of major damage control can save our stocks from plummeting.”

Henry looked white. “All right,” he said, not to them but to Xander. “You’ve made your point. I’ll call off the press. I’ll take down the photo, too.”

“That’s not enough.” Xander’s tone was cold.

“What the fuck do you want then?” Henry snarled. “Blood?”

“Don’t be so dramatic.” Xander reached into his blazer pocket and shuffled through some documents. “I want you out of our lives for good. If I see one more text from you, I’ll leak this to the press.” He threw down some papers, and I presumed one of them was my fake marriage license. “Before you think about tearing these up, I have backup copies.” He clicked a pen. “First things first, release yourself as Jordan’s conservator, and grant me temporary power of attorney until I sort out how best to take over.”

“No.” It took me a moment to realize that the outraged cry came from me. “Please, Xander. I don’t want to be under another person’s control.”

Xander didn’t even look at me, his stoic face devoid of emotions.

Henry scoffed. “So much for the white knight.”

Xander’s eyes hardened as he looked at his father. “Sign.”

“You know what? You’re welcome to have her.” Henry looked at me unfeelingly. “Just as long as you stay the fuck away from my business. She’s really not worth this much trouble.” Henry yanked the pen out of Xander’s hand.

Xander watched Henry sign with a gleam in his eyes. “I have everything I ever wanted right here. You and your business can fuck off, Dad.”

Unable to watch myself be bartered away like a piece of property, I turned and headed for the stairs.

I thought he had valued me as a person, but he was using me like an object, in the crudest sense of the word. And he had done it in front of his entire family.

I had a flashback to being kicked and punched within earshot of Henry’s friends at his party. The public humiliation of knowing the man I had hitched myself to cared so little for me had been almost as painful as the ensuing wounds. Xander had never hit me, I had told myself, in consolation.

But this betrayal felt worse.

I felt it in my soul.

Henry moved like he was going to follow, but Joe dragged him away. “Let’s take twenty to talk about how we’re going to move forward,” he said in a low, angry voice.

“What about Jordan?” Jasper asked. The concern in his voice touched my heart and reignited the guilt I felt over this whole situation. His love and affection for me had always been so pure.

“Let her go,” I heard someone—Caden—say.

I went to my bedroom and knew immediately it was time for the whole damsel in distress thing to end.

No one would give me freedom. I had to take it for myself.

I walked to the window. I looked down at the ivy-strewn fence I had observed earlier. It was close enough and wide enough that I thought I could make it. It wasn’t that different than the monkey puzzle tree that had been in my parents’ front yard, but I hadn’t been pregnant then, and now I was wary about demonstrating the same level of athleticism.

A breeze gusted at me as I opened the window. I swung out a leg, testing the strength of the fence to make sure it would support my weight, and then slid out the other foot cautiously, gripping onto the underside of the frame as I levered myself out the window. I felt one of my nails break and gasped at the pain, which, in turn, made me wobble. I had to bite back a scream, my arm twitching as I resisted the urge to cradle my midsection.