Chapter 6: The Invalid Line

Daniel Johnson’s arrogant laughter echoed off the high, dark ceiling of the suite. He stood over Ethan, waving the thick stack of transfer papers like a winning lottery ticket.

"Look at you, cousin," Daniel sneered, his eyes gleam with malicious triumph. "Sitting on the floor, bleeding through your pants, depending on a bargain-bin maid your uncle bought off the Carters. You're a pathetic ghost lingering in a empty house. Just sign the papers. The board already knows you're a half-wit invalid."

Ethan’s jaw clenched until the bone throbbed beneath his dark stubble. His knuckles turned stark white against the floor. The physical inability to stand up and break Daniel’s jaw in two was an agonizing torture that burned deep in his chest. He glared up at his cousin with dark, lethal eyes, radiating a silent, savage promise of violence that almost made Daniel’s guards shift uncomfortably.

Daniel turned his sneer toward Emma, dismissively tossing a pen at her feet. "Hey. Maiden. Pick that up and put it in his hand. If you make yourself useful, maybe I’ll toss a few thousand dollars your way so you can buy a coat that doesn't smell like rain."

Ethan braced himself, his cold eyes turning toward Emma. He fully expected her to shrink back, to cower, or perhaps even to snatch up the pen and force it into his fingers to curry favor with the man who currently held the power. That was how the world worked. People fed on the weak.

Emma didn't bend down to pick up the pen. She didn't even look at it.

Instead, she stepped smoothly across the blood-stained carpet, putting herself directly between Daniel and Ethan. Her posture was erect, her slender frame radiating an icy, unbreakable calm.

"Your legal phrasing is absurdly incompetent," Emma said, her voice smooth, level, and cutting through Daniel’s arrogance like a surgical blade.

Daniel blinked, taken aback by her cold tone. He let out a loud, incredulous laugh. "What did you just say to me, girl?"

"I said your documentation is a legal joke," Emma repeated, looking Daniel dead in the eye without a trace of fear. She tapped her toe lightly against the stack of papers lying on the floor. "You are attempting to execute an immediate asset transfer of fifteen percent voting shares under Section 4 of the Johnson Group Bylaws. However, you failed to notice that those specific shares were placed into a private, irrevocable family trust three years ago."

Ethan’s dark eyes narrowed, a sharp, quiet shock rippling through his chest. *How the hell does she know about the private trust?* That structure was buried deep in his personal archives, completely separate from the public company records.

Emma didn't stop. She took a half-step forward, forcing Daniel to step back.

"Furthermore," Emma continued coldly, "under current federal corporate law, any contract signed by an individual while under severe physical trauma or without independent legal counsel present is automatically voidable. If you force his signature on those papers right now, I will file an emergency injunction with the High Court within the hour. Not only will the transfer be frozen indefinitely, but you will also face criminal charges for extortion of a vulnerable individual."

Daniel’s face flushed a deep, ugly red. The greasy smirk vanished completely from his lips, replaced by pure, vein-popping rage. He had come here expecting a broken man and an obedient, uneducated scapegoat bride. He hadn't bargained on facing a woman who dissected corporate law with terrifying, instant precision.

"You arrogant little bitch!" Daniel spat out, his voice cracking with fury. "You’re a disposable sacrifice the Carters threw out with the trash! How dare you open your mouth in front of me?"

"I am the legal wife of Ethan Johnson," Emma replied flatly, her eyes unyielding. "Which gives me full power of attorney in the absence of his designated legal team. Take your fraudulent papers and get out of this house."

"You need to learn your place!" Daniel screamed, completely losing his composure.

Driven to absolute madness by her cold defiance, Daniel raised his heavy, ringed right hand high into the air, swinging it down toward Emma’s face with all the force he could muster.

Emma didn't flinch. She tightened her jaw, preparing to take the blow if it meant keeping Daniel from touching Ethan.

SWISH!

The strike never landed.

A hand shot up from below with lightning speed, locking around Daniel’s wrist in mid-air like a hydraulic steel clamp.

The impact of the catch vibrated through the room with a sharp, heavy SNAP.

Daniel gasped, his eyes bulging as his arm was halted inches from Emma’s cheek.

Ethan sat on the floor, his broad shoulders tensed, his chest rising and falling like a roaring engine. Though his legs were useless, his upper body was built from years of relentless physical conditioning and raw, suppressed violence. His grip around Daniel’s wrist was bone-crushing, his dark, bloodthirsty eyes locked onto his cousin’s terrified face.

"Raise your hand against my wife again," Ethan rasped, his voice dropping into a dark, guttural growl that made the blood run cold in the room, "and I will snap your arm in three places before your bodyguards can take a breath."

"E-Ethan!" Daniel choked out, his face turning pale as he felt the heavy silver ring on his finger crushing violently into his own flesh under Ethan’s terrifying grip. "Let go! You're crazy! Let go!"

"She told you to leave," Ethan said softly, his voice devoid of any human warmth. "So you get out."

With a brutal twist of his arm, Ethan shoved Daniel backward. Daniel lost his footing, stumbling hard over his own feet and crashing painfully onto his backside against the hard wooden floor, scattering his useless legal papers everywhere.

"Boss!" the two burly bodyguards yelled, stepping forward instinctively.

Ethan didn't even look at the guards. He simply sat back against the sofa, his icy, arrogant gaze fixed on his trembling cousin. "If either of those dogs takes a step closer, Daniel, I will personally guarantee your uncle loses his board seat by morning. Try me."

Daniel scrambled to his feet, clutching his bruised, red wrist to his chest. He looked at Ethan—and then at Emma, who stood beside the wheelchair-bound CEO like an untouchable guardian—with sheer, unadulterated fear.

"You... you two deserve each other!" Daniel yelled, his voice cracking as he backed toward the open doors. "Pick up the papers! Pick them up! We’re leaving!"

The two bodyguards hurriedly scooped up the scattered documents, and the three of them practically sprinted out of the suite, their frantic footsteps echoing down the long, dark corridor until the outer doors slammed shut.

Silence settled over the vast room once more.

The heavy rain continued to batter the tall glass windows. In the middle of the dark suite, Ethan sat on the floor, breathing heavily, his dark hair falling over his forehead.

Slowly, he turned his head to look up at Emma.

For the first time since she had crossed the threshold of Johnson Manor, the cold, savage arrogance in his eyes was replaced by a deep, intense, and bewildered shock.

Emma calmly stepped over a fallen sheet of paper, reached out, and offered him her pale, steady hand.

"Are you ready to get back into your chair now, Mr. Johnson?" she asked smoothly.