Chapter 4

JACE’S POV

TWO WEEKS LATER

LIGHT, CAMERA, WAR.

She’s not the same and neither am I.

Her recovery was quick. They said, once a man stands on the path between life and death, when they return, they lose one thing that made them weak.

Lisa refused to spend more days in the hospital, no matter how hard we all tried to beg, her mind had been made up.

“You should talk to her, she will listen,” her mother said, her eyes gleaming with tears as we watched Lisa explain to the doctors why she needed to be discharged.

“I wish I could, but her mind is made up,” I muttered. That wasn’t the only thing on my mind; her words echoed through my nerves like a chord struck on repeat.

She was out for blood, ready to ruin the man who had destroyed her.

“Jace, take me home,” she pleaded.

And like a foot soldier, I nodded, agreeing to anything she said, if this was the only way that I would be with her, I didn’t mind it. I had lost her once, I won’t make the mistake of losing her again.

She didn’t flinch when we stepped out of the hospital, her eyes were filled with untamed rage as the reporters’ cameras flashed, hungry questions thrown at her.

Her lips curled into a smile, the same one that I had seen her practice a few nights before. And just like I had seen, “Thank you so much for the care and the cards, when I am much better, I will grant you all the interview that you need,”

Those words sounded genuine, but I was there when she had practised those line like she was going for a movie audition.

“That was intense,” I muttered, closing the car door behind us. “We should have used the back entrance, that way they won’t know that you are leaving,”

“No, this was great… they had arrived just as I knew they would come,” she said in a monotone, her eyes fixed on the phone in her hand.

She no longer flinched when she saw pictures of Dominic and his mistress, rather she glared at the pictures like a sorceress, thinking up the worst chaos to throw at them.

“Were you planning to tell me about the engagement party tonight?” she sneered, her voice cold and hard, cutting through the already tensed car.

When the news had first aired, we had been scared of how she would take it. After Dominic’s visit, her mother had assumed she needed time away from everything that reminded her of him.

To heal, well that was what we all thought. We had been wrong, she had been plotting, setting her pace, buying time. Waiting for when she would strike.

“I heard about it this morning. I just didn’t know how to tell you,” I replied.

“We are attending,” she said in a firm tone.

I blinked, trying to process the words that I have just heard, “Lisa, it’s not yet time.”

“What bad ex would I be if I don’t wish him a happy married life?” she muttered, her eyes glinting with a mischievous look.

“Staying away, that is the best thing that you can do,” I replied, hoping she would listen to me.

I have always known her to be hot-headed, but this time, it was worse.

She chuckled, a low sound that lack humour in it, “No, I will be there, with you by my side as my fiancé,”

“Lisa…”

“Let’s go public,”

“We will, but we have to practice, not like this. The media will see through our facade.”

Her head turned towards me, her face unreadable, giving nothing away, “We will attend his engagement party tonight as a couple, let the world see that he hadn’t broken me just like he thought he had,”

I was lost for words. I was the one who initiated this revenge plan, but she had taken it upon herself, as if waiting for someone to become her backbone.

All I wanted was to be around her, to protect her from the world shews desperately wanting to jump back into.

“Are you sure that you are ready? This isn’t about proving a point…”

“If I stay quiet, he is going to think that he has won,” she hissed, her fist clenched as she hit the back of the car seat.

I wanted to tell her to let it go. Fighting fire with fire was only going to cause more hazard. But I was a selfish man, and I would do anything to call her mine.

“Okay,” I muttered. “Let’s do this,”

LATER THAT EVENING.

Dominic had made his engagement party to be a state dinner. The number of press hovering outside, one would think it was a movie premiere. Lisa fingers trembled slightly as the car pulled to a stop.

Tonight, she had found herself the rarest emerald green down, pairing it with a set of diamonds, ones that were linked to being worn by Cleopatra herself.

“We can go home if you want,” I whispered. Either way, I wouldn’t be sad of which action she was willing to take.

She didn’t acknowledge me, her eyes were on the mirror, perfecting her smiles, her posture— everything that she knew would be scrutinised.

The scar on her collarbone, she had refused to cover it, “They are my battle scars, a story to show him that he tried to kill the serpent but failed,”

Tonight, she was returning like the scorned bride, ready to bring the storm into the lives of those that crossed her.

“Open the door,” she ordered the driver.

I stepped out first, using my body as a shield to hide her from the brutal flashing lights. She didn’t shy away, her chin raised in pride as she wrapped her hand around me. Her presence sliced through the noise like a blade drawing attention to the force that had just stepped in.

Dominic frowned, the crowd no longer stared at him. He hated that. I smirked, wrapping m arm around her waist, pulling her closer to my body.

The paparazzi swamped, they could smell a story from a mile away.

“Are you together?”

“What are you feeling right now?”

“Is Jace the new Mr right?”

Lisa didn’t move, her expression unwavering, letting the silence stretch the tension thin. Then she smiled, a slow, deadly move.

“Jace and I are building something together. A home that we all deserve,”

Dominic’s eyes twitched, she had taken a page out of his book. A sacred rule that can never be broken.

No one steal his spotlight.

The bomb? She grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me down for a soft kiss.

The reporters froze, but their fingers hadn’t stopped clicking on the cameras, they saw it and I was certain that Dominic had seen it too.

The kiss felt perfect, too perfect, she was sending a message, reminding him of the lips that he had once kissed. The lips that promised him riches now pressed against another, me; his step brother, the one he feels took his life from him.

She wasn’t just playing into the present, she was bringing his worst fears to life.

“Are you read for the storm?” she whispered, her lips curled in a dark smile.

For you, I would sell my soul to the darkness just to feel the touch of your lips once more.

“Let’s give him hell,” I said, sealing it with a kiss.