Family Business

I think Damien hates me now, and I really can’t stand bullies anymore.

I’ll just break.

I stood up again, because if I didn’t, I thought I might actually stop breathing. My heart was beating too hard, like it wanted out of my chest, and my throat felt too tight to swallow.

“I… I want to retire to bed now,” I whispered, though I didn’t know why I bothered. I wasn’t asking permission. Not really.

The glass in Shallow’s hand stopped halfway to his mouth. The room went still, heavy with expectation.

I could feel Damien watching me. I could feel him, that impossible pull, but I didn’t dare lift my gaze.

Shallow’s stare landed on me, and it felt like something oily sliding across my skin. His eyes were glassy with drink, the flush creeping up his thick neck like a warning flare.

“You think you can just stand up and leave?” he asked, voice soft enough to be dangerous.

My hands trembled. I clenched them against my skirts. “I—I need—”

“You need,” he repeated, drawing out the word like it tasted foul. “You need to sit down and remember your place.”

Something in me—small and tired and still alive—wanted to scream. To say I didn’t have a place here. That I never asked for any of this.

But I didn’t.

I just stood there, staring at the polished floor, feeling my pulse in my teeth.

Shallow leaned back in his chair, smiling in that way that meant nothing good. “I have been patient, Eloise. I have tolerated your little displays tonight.”

He slammed his glass onto the table. Wine splashed across the white linen like blood.

“But you will not embarrass me again.”

The air left my lungs. Everyone was watching—Fiona with her catty little smirk. The sons are pretending not to care. Damien… silent. A shadow at the edge of my vision.

Shallow stood. The scrape of his chair made my spine lock up. I didn’t turn. I couldn’t.

He moved behind me, slow and deliberate, close enough that I could smell the wine on his breath. My stomach turned.

“You will stay,” he murmured, just for me. His hand closed over my shoulder, squeezing hard enough that I felt the warning in my bones.

“And you will smile.”

Something hot pricked the backs of my eyes. I swallowed it down. He didn’t get my tears tonight.

His fingers dug in deeper. “Or I will drag you upstairs in front of everyone and show them exactly how I deal with an ungrateful little bitch.”

A tremor shook my knees. I hated him. I hated this. I hated that some part of me wasn’t even surprised anymore.

The silence stretched.

And then—

Damien’s chair scraped against the floor.

The sound was so sharp it felt like it cut right through me.

Shallow went still behind me.

I didn’t move. My heart felt like it might claw its way out of my chest.

Damien’s voice came quiet, but it landed like a command.

“Release her.”

Shallow let out a short, ugly laugh. “You think you can order me in my own home?”

My breath snagged. My skin felt too tight. I didn’t know whom I feared more in that moment.

Damien didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to.

“Let. Her. Go.”

For a moment, I thought Shallow would break me right there, just to prove he could.

What is Damien doing? This would make my life worse in this house. Do I need to put him in his place?

I parted my lips to say something, but then Shallow shoved me forward.

I caught myself against the table, palms stinging, heart in my throat.

“What is Damien doing?” The thought shrieked in my skull again. This—this will definitely make my life worse in this house.

Did he think he was helping me? No?!

Did he think Shallow would forget this humiliation?

I still didn’t look at anyone. Couldn’t. I should be used to these embarrassments, to this degrading show of power, but today is a day I have never lived, and so I wasn’t prepared.

Damien spoke again, and his voice was lower than I’d ever heard it.

“Leave us.”

My legs finally moved.

“Please stop interfering in our business,” I gritted out to him.

I parted my lips, voice shaking but full of something reckless. “Please… stop interfering in our business,” I gritted out, each word tasting like acid on my tongue.

The entire table seemed to inhale at once.

A hush so complete it rang in my ears.

Damien raised his head. Slowly.

His gaze caught mine—those impossible grey eyes, glinting with something I couldn’t name. Something dark. Possessive. Almost amused.

“You call this business?” he asked softly.

His voice slipped under my skin like a blade, and I hated the way it made heat lick up the back of my neck.

“This isn’t business,” he continued, standing fully, the lines of his suit catching the light, making him look taller, more dangerous. “This is family, and baby I’m family.”

My breath froze. Family? So he can make my life miserable and then leave?

Why did he kiss me? I thought miserably. I was already miserable just hours after his arrival.

Shallow let out a strangled sound—part laughter, part warning—but Damien didn’t look at him. He looked only at me.

“Be very careful,” he said, voice so low only I could hear, “of the words that part those lips.”

Heat pooled in my chest, furious and terrified and something else I refused to name.

I swallowed the words I wanted to throw in his face.

Instead, I tore my gaze away, every step unsteady as I turned from the table.

But just as I reached the doorway, his voice found me again—velvet and iron.

“Sweet dreams, Shallow's wife.”

I didn’t look back.

I couldn’t.

I fled before the truth of it could unravel me completely.

I didn’t wait.

I didn’t breathe until I was out the door.

Eloise sucked in a trembling breath and fled the room before anyone could stop her.