The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 269

Garrison didn't fight back.

His arms hung loosely at his sides. He took the first hit. He took the second. He stood his ground like a battered tree in a hurricane. His branches snapped, his trunk was splintering, but his roots remained locked dead into the earth.

Watching him take the abuse only poured gasoline on Josh's fire.

“Do you think taking a beating makes you a man, Garrison? Do you think this magically absolves you of what you did to her?”

He panted erratically, his voice shaking with pure rage. “You piece of trash. You don't even have the right to beg for her forgiveness!”

“Where the hell were you when she got pregnant and everyone treated her like garbage until she was forced to drop out?! Where were you when your family isolated her, harassed her, and humiliated her in public?! Where were you during those endless nights when she suffered through the agonizing pain of her illness all by herself?!”

“You were never there! You were too busy playing God, judging her with your cold, arrogant metrics! She risked her own life diving into that ice cave, and you finally showed up—but what good did that do?! You couldn't even protect her when she died! You didn't give her a single day of happiness while she was alive, Garrison! You don't get to stand here and make decisions for her now!”

Josh's words acted as poison-tipped needles, bursting whatever shredded pride Garrison had left.

Wyatt and Cassandra lunged forward to restrain the younger man. Wyatt grabbed Josh around the waist while Cassandra yanked on his arm, but even together, they couldn't hold down a man running purely on adrenaline.

“Josh, shut the hell up!” Wyatt shouted, completely losing his temper. “Are you ever going to stop?!”

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