The Lies Behind Her Marriage novel Chapter 178

Justice In The Dark.

“I could never be him. Not even close,” Xavier said quietly, his chest tightening. “I may have stopped Serena from boarding that Eastwind Air flight… but when it comes to influence, to power — to moving the world when it needs to be moved — I can’t compare to Nathan.”

He let out a breath that sounded almost like a laugh, but it wasn’t.

“I was there when she needed someone ordinary,” he continued. “But when she needed someone powerful…”

He trailed off.

He looked down at his hands.

“I guess,” he said softly, “I was never the one she was meant to choose.”

“Serena hasn’t made her choice yet,” Alice muttered.

“She doesn’t have to say it,” Xavier said, gazing at Sebastian’s sleeping figure before returning his attention to Alice. “But I know, deep down, her feelings for him aren’t something she could easily forget.”

Alice was silent for a moment. She followed his gaze before speaking.

“Xavier.” She reached for his hand.

He held on.

“You aren’t lacking,” Alice said. “Serena is just… meant to love someone else.”

“But that doesn’t mean you weren’t enough,” Alice continued. “You don’t see yourself the way other people do.”

He frowned slightly. “Other people?”

Alice held his gaze this time.

“Yes,” she said. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

When she let go of his hand, she stared out the window, folding her arms across her chest. “Some of us don’t need you to move the world.”

***

10 PM, outside Fort Greyhold.

“Ahhhh! Fuck you, Nathaniel Thorne!”

“Ahhhh!”

Victor’s scream broke into something raw and ugly as his body dropped into open air.

His hands were tied behind his back, his eyes covered. Deprived of sight and balance, he was nothing more than dead weight surrendered to gravity.

His body rotated violently. His knees jerked upward, kicking uselessly at the emptiness below as if he could run on air.

There was no control. No dignity.

Just a grown man reduced to a flailing, screaming figure suspended between sky and ground.

“Stop!”

“This is enough!”

Nathaniel had pushed Victor off a sixty-foot-high tower just outside the borders of the military camp. It was private, secured, and cleared of personnel.

No one else was allowed nearby.

Over twenty soldiers secured the area, a few assisting in making Victor suffer.

To Serena, it was satisfying to hear Victor’s cries, to see the panic on his face, and to watch him soil himself multiple times.

Why?

Because this had been the tenth time Nathaniel had made Victor take the fall.

The first five times, Victor had been attached to a harness. The succeeding five times, Nathaniel had let Victor drop onto an inflatable safety landing cushion.

Silas kneeled and grabbed Victor by his shirt, pulling him up. “Tell me!”

Victor was completely weak, but… he still dared to laugh. With his blindfold already gone, he spat blood on Silas’s face and said, “Never!”

“Fuck!” Silas screamed, wiping his face. “Fuck!”

A soldier handed Silas a towel to wipe himself clean. Then, Silas looked at Nathaniel. “It should be about time, right?”

Nathaniel checked his phone, his knuckles bruised from giving Victor a lesson. “Yeah. She’s here.”

“Victor? Dad!”

Everyone’s attention turned to the blonde woman being restrained by a female soldier.

Victor looked up, and his eyes widened in horror. “No. No!"

“Dad, you are still alive? What’s going on?” Vanessa Holt cried the moment she saw Victor.

“What’s going on?” Nathaniel said. He motioned toward the tower and revealed, “You are going to entertain us by jumping off that tower.”

“No!” Victor screamed. “You don’t involve my daughter in this!”

Nathaniel did not respond immediately. He simply looked at Vanessa.

“Secure her,” Nathaniel ordered calmly.

Vanessa struggled as the soldiers dragged her toward the edge. Her cries echoed into the dark, sharp and panicked.

Victor thrashed against his restraints. “Nathaniel! Don’t you dare! Don’t you touch her!”

But Nathaniel’s expression did not change. He calmly turned to Victor, saying, “You have every power to stop this."

At first, Victor did not cave. However, after Vanessa had been pushed off the tower twice, her body shaking in fear, crying helplessly, Victor finally broke.

“I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you. Just… leave Vanessa alone!”