The Love I Begged For Was Never Real novel Chapter 244

Gideon's breathing grew violently heavy, his chest heaving with barely suppressed rage.

"When Giselle was in Paris, she cried in my arms. She said the person she hated the most in this world was you—the shadow she just couldn't shake."

Watching the absolute devastation and fury war on Gideon's face, a sick satisfaction flashed through Julian's eyes as he dropped the final, fatal blow.

"Tell me, if I proposed to her right now and took her back to Europe, do you think she'd say yes just to finally escape you?"

Europe.

Julian actually harbored delusions of ripping Giselle away to a completely different continent, entirely out of the Hayes family's reach. Gideon's pupils contracted to pinpoints.

He had spent over a decade meticulously building a fortress to keep Giselle safe at the absolute center of his world. Julian's threat was no different than taking a blade straight to his chest.

"You have a death wish, Julian."

Gideon snapped, the last fragile thread of his sanity obliterating in an instant.

He lunged forward, his powerful arm shooting out to violently seize Julian by the collar of his jacket.

He didn't care how Julian targeted him in the corporate world. He didn't care about their boardroom wars or the ruthless hijacking of business assets. Even if the Pierce Group moved heaven and earth to crush the Hayes empire, Gideon could handle it with ice-cold precision.

But he absolutely refused to let this man confidently dictate his relationship with Giselle. He would not tolerate Julian crossing his ultimate bottom line by threatening to take her away.

And he absolutely, fundamentally refused to hear the words "Giselle hates him" come out of Julian's mouth.

His fist swung through the air with a brutal force, smashing directly into the side of Julian's face.

The crowd could only stand helplessly a few feet away, watching the two men brutalize each other in the dirt.

When Nora finally reached the edge of the training ring, she was met with a scene of absolute chaos that nearly knocked the breath out of her lungs.

Every punch was lethal, every hit aimed at inflicting maximum damage. They were practically trying to kill each other.

Lawrence Atelier's entire financial lifeline was still locked in Julian's grip. If Gideon actually beat him half to death today, a man as vindictive as Julian would absolutely turn around and crush her studio into dust out of spite.

Gritting her teeth, Nora sprinted right into the storm of flying dirt. She desperately grabbed Gideon's suit sleeve just as he wound up for another punch, her voice screaming out, raw and panicked.

"Gideon! You're out of your mind! Stop it! Let him go!"