Her Divorce, His Downfall (Sophia and Damian) novel Chapter 176

Chapter 176 Claiming Territory

“In your dreams!” Sophia snarled through gritted teeth, her eyes blazing. Her nails raked across his neck, leaving several bloody scratches.

Damian didn’t seem to feel the pain at all. His stare only grew colder.

The harder she resisted, the fiercer his need to conquer became.

Look at her. They weren’t even divorced yet, and she was already mooning over another man right in front of him.

And that man was his own uncle. If this wasn’t a dagger straight to the heart, nothing was.

Absolutely ruthless.

Damian was done talking. He lowered his head and claimed her lips.

He pried her lips apart with practiced ease. There was no gentle exploration, no tenderness of reunion. Only punishment.

He kissed her hard and rough, as if trying to erase every last trace of Julian from her mouth.

As he wanted to pour all the pain, the guilt, and the Ditter 11:39

injustice of these past months into this single, violent kiss.

Sophia’s eyes flew wide open. Panic overwhelmed every other emotion inside her.

Revulsion and fury tangled together, and her whole body shook.

She wrenched her head sideways, thrashing, and bit down hard on his lip until they both tasted iron.

It only made him grip the back of her head tighter and kiss her harder.

She could feel the heat of his touch. She could feel his pain and his obsession. But none of it moved her. The only thing left inside was bone–deep hatred.

What right did Damian have?

He’d abandoned her. He’d enabled Isabelle’s cruelty until it nearly killed her. And now he dared trample on her dignity like

this?

Damian tasted the blood on her lips and eased the pressure slightly, but he still didn’t let go.

The savagery drained from his kiss by slow degrees, replaced by something softer.

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And threaded beneath the tenderness, barely perceptible, was a desperate, pleading hunger.

He hated her coldness. He hated her resistance. He hated how ruthless she could be. But he was terrified she’d disappear again, and even more terrified that she’d never forgive him.

He kissed her until his mind blurred. The hand on the back of her head loosened slightly, but his arm around her waist stayed locked tight.

As if the moment he let go, she would vanish. He didn’t dare release her.

Sophia seized the opening. She gathered every ounce of strength and drove her knee into the back of his leg. When he buckled, she shoved him away hard.

Their lips broke apart. Both of them gasped for air, chests heaving, their ragged breathing colliding in the narrow space between them.

Damian steadied himself and looked up. The first thing he saw was her lips, bitten raw, red and swollen from his assault.

He swallowed hard. The fury and frustration churning inside him froze mid–surge.

Sophia staggered back several steps. Her fists clenche so tight39

her nails bit into her palms, but she didn’t feel the sting.

She raised a hand and wiped furiously at the moisture and blood smeared on her lips. Her eyes were molten with hatred as she glared at him, each word ground between her teeth.

“Damian, if you touch me one more time, I will kill you if it’s the last thing I do.

Damian stood there, blood still seeping from his lip, a dangerous glint lingering in his eyes. But beneath it, a current of self–reproach surfaced.

He’d lost control. He’d been reckless.

He shouldn’t have treated her that way.

But he didn’t regret it. Not even if it made her hate him more.

He couldn’t bear to hear her talk about Julian. He couldn’t stand

watching her be this cold and cruel toward him.

He wrestled his emotions back under the surface. His expression was complicated, his voice hard and unyielding,

“I’ll say it one more time. Do not let Julian touch you. Because if you do, either he kills me or I kill him.

Grandma’s youngest son and her favorite grandson, aring 1:39

be.”

“You’re insane.” Sophia stared at him in disbelief, her voice sharp with alarm. “You’re using your own grandmother to threaten me over some twisted possessiveness? Don’t you know she has a history of strokes and high blood pressure? She can’t handle shock.”

“I know that.” Damian’s brow twitched upward. A smile that was barely a smile settled on his lips.

“Don’t make me out to be that cold. Grandma practically raised you. She might as well be your own grandmother. Even for her sake, you should think twice.”

He let that hang for a moment, then swept a dark, loaded glance across her shaken face.

“Sophia, I know you care about Grandma just as much as I do. You wouldn’t want to see the Hall family men destroy each other over you, would you?”

Hearing him deliver a threat so casually, as if commenting on the weather, Sophia felt ice crawl through her entire body. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

Just then, a phone rang, piercing and abrupt,