Chapter 18
“Hunter, so you think what we said was funny too?”
When Hunter’s friend finally saw him smile, they assumed he’d heard their conversation. They nudged him with suggestive grins.
“What?” Hunter genuinely hadn’t been listening.
“About Nadine! Sure, she was your sworn enemy, but damn–that temper and that body!
We’ve all talked about how once you divorced her and got tired of her, we’d take her for a spin!
11
“Yeah, Nadine would’ve been way wilder than these girls. We could’ve roughed her up. That
would’ve been fun.”
“Too bad she’s dead. Otherwise, we’d have waited for you to dump her.”
They leered at each other. They were actually fantasizing about Nadine!
Hunter’s expression darkened instantly. The glass bottle in his hand creaked under his grip. He whipped his head around, piercing the speaker with a glare colder than ice. “How dare you?
The man, Jake Harrison, flinched but quickly grew defiant as he squared his shoulders. “Why not? You hated her. Once you were done with her, what’s wrong with me having a turn?”
“Say that again!”
Hunter shot to his feet, smashing the bottle on the ground. Glass erupted in a shower of fragments. A raw, unfamiliar rage blazed in his eyes, as if they had crossed an inviolable
boundary.
Now furious too, Jake grabbed Hunter’s collar. “What’s your problem? You never loved her! Stop pretending!”
They crashed together instantly–fists pounding flesh, glass crunching underfoot, and the scene devolved into chaos.
Others rushed to pull them apart, all while yelling, “Enough! You’ve been friends for 20 years! Why are you fighting over a woman?”
“And that woman is Nadine! She’s dead now! She can’t even hear this! Hunter, why bother?”
Several men restrained Hunter, his chest heaving violently as he continued glaring at his so- called friend.
An unrelenting fury had simmered inside him for days, and neither tormenting Serena nor
Chapter 18
drowning in alcohol could ease it. Now, he finally snapped after hearing such words.
you
2/2
think
His eyes were bloodshot as he roared uncontrollably, “Apologize to her! How dare of her like that! I would never have divorced Nadine. She’s still mine even if she’s dead!”
Jake refused to back down. Their friends could only stand between them helplessly.
“Hunter, what’s gotten into you? Are you really throwing away 20 years of brotherhood over a dead woman? Nadine’s gone–our words can’t hurt her now.”
Logically, Hunter knew they were right. He’d told himself the same thing. But all reason vanished the moment those vulgar comments about Nadine surfaced.
How could they have dared to harbor such thoughts? Nadine was his woman–alive or dead, she belonged to him!
As Hunter panted heavily, Jake sneered from where he was being held back. “Can’t you see? Our Mr. Goldman has been in love with Nadine all along!”
The group exchanged stunned looks. This revelation hit harder than the brawl, especially since Nadine had been Hunter’s sworn enemy.
Someone muttered in disbelief, “No way… How could Hunter love Nadine?”
“Open your eyes!” Jake’s voice turned shrill.
“Look at him! If he didn’t love her, why would he kill Serena over this? Why lose his mind at just a few words?”
The
group fell silent. After Nadine’s death, they’d all assumed Hunter would continue his relationship with Serena. No one expected him to torture her for a month before finally killing her at Nadine’s grave.
This alone was abnormal. Now faced with such direct accusations, doubt crept into their minds.
“Hunter, did you really fall for Nadine?” someone ventured cautiously.
Others joined in as they asked carefully, “Hunter, is what Jake said true?”
Hunter had remained silent until then. He suddenly overturned the nearest table when he heard these questions. Bottles and glasses crashed to the floor in a deafening explosion of sound, making everyone jump.
He then roared hoarsely like an enraged beast, “Yes! I fell for her! I’ve loved her all along!”
