Tame him, conquer him, but try not to get too attached
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Chapter 5
At the hospital, Xavier summoned the best trauma team in the country,
All for a scraped elbow,
“Does it still hurt?” he asked softly. “Don’t worry–I’ve already made sure those men paid for what they did. I promise, nothing like that will ever happen again.”
Sophie’s eyes turned misty, but she refused to respond.
She didn’t say a word the entire time the top specialists tended to her elbow. Only after every trace of redness had vanished–her skin smooth and unblemished–did Xavier reluctantly allow her to leave their care.
In the privacy of her VIP hospital suite, with no one else around, Xavier knelt beside her bed.
“I’m sorry, Sophie. This was my fault. I should’ve been there. I should’ve protected you.” He looked up at her with intensity. “Let’s move in together. I’ll have the house ready tonight.”
It wasn’t until the words move in together left his lips that Sophie finally looked him in the eye.
Her gaze was pure, uncertain, tinged with shy confusion–like a snow–white rabbit stumbling into thorns. Something
about that look made Xavier’s heart twist.
That unfamiliar ache–it hooked deeper than any knife. And somehow, it thrilled him.
He was addicted to every flicker of emotion she showed, especially when he was the cause.
Once he was sure she’d forgiven him, Xavier called the housekeeper. His voice returned to its usual icy chill.
“Get rid of everything Avery’s ever touched. Clear her out of the main estate. Move all her belongings to the empty house
near Hollow Creek.”
“Sir…” Mrs. Jenkins hesitated. “Mrs. Ford never came home last night. I thought… she was with you.”
Xavier’s chest tightened.
Last night–he vaguely remembered what he’d done in a blind rage. He’d ordered those men to-
But the thought was buried almost instantly.
He couldn’t afford hesitation–not when Sophie’s presence stirred something so dangerously human in him.
“Then get rid of her things. Every last trace. Replace it all. By tonight, this estate will answer to someone new.” he said
coldly.
He ended the call, thumb hovering over his security team’s number–then pulled back.
“She brought it on herself,” he muttered. “When the divorce comes, I’ll just give her a generous settlement.”
He erased Avery from his mind as if she’d never existed.
Chapter 5
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Tame him, conquer him, but try not to get too attached.
Cradling Sophie in his arms, he carried her like she was sacred and returned to the master bedroom–the same room he’d
once shared with Avery.
There was nothing of her left..
Every trace of Avery’s presence had been scrubbed clean. Even the massive wedding portrait he’d never really looked at before–it was gone.
A new scent filled the air. Sterile. Cold.
And yet, as Sophie wandered through the gilded room like a startled deer, wide–eyed and barefoot in her silk robe, Xavier was struck by a strange emptiness.
“Is… this your home?” she wrote gently into his palm, her delicate fingers spelling out the words.
Her eyes shimmered with uncertainty, her innocence like a flame feeding his darker desires.
He wrapped an arm around her impossibly small waist and turned to the silent staff.
“From today on,” he declared, “she’s the lady of this house. Whatever she wants–it’s law.”
“Yes, sir.”
Mrs. Jenkins opened her mouth to speak, but Xavier silenced her with a single icy glance.
From that day forward, Xavier’s world revolved around Sophie.
He drastically scaled back his time at the company and stopped frequenting the underground casinos. Most of his business dealings were redirected to the estate.
If Sophie so much as glanced at something twice, he’d buy it in every color just to see her smile.
He publicly named her his fiancée and pulled every string necessary to elevate her father and brother–slum background be damned.
This was the same man who once ordered executions without blinking, now playing the part of a love–struck tyrant, indulging her every whim like nothing else in the world mattered.
Two months later, Ford Enterprises was set to host a high–profile charity gala at Westbay.
And that’s when he remembered me.
The one who used to handle every shady deal. The one who played his shadow at every social event.
He dialed my number.
“This number is no longer in service,” the recording said.
Xavier’s face darkened instantly.
“Well done, Avery. You think you can just vanish?”
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Tame him, conquer him, but try not to get too attached
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Xavier sent his men straight to Hollow Creek, demanding they bring her back.
But the report was curt: the place was abandoned, layers of dust untouched. She’d never been there.
“Bullshit!” Xavier roared, hurling his whiskey glass across the room. It exploded against the wall in a spray of glass and liquor.
“Who tipped her off? The butler? One of the maids?”
The crash startled Sophie awake.
She drifted down the stairs in her silk nightgown, barefoot and dazed, her presence soft and delicate, like something made of moonlight.
She reached him quietly and traced words into his palm with trembling fingers. “What happened?”
For the first time, something cold and sharp twisted in Xavier’s chest..
Avery had been his weapon–sharp, relentless, made to survive the darkest corners of his world.
Sophie was light. Gentle. Untouched by blood and betrayal. And far too soft for the world he ruled.
“It’s nothing,” he muttered, pulling away from her touch.
And for the first time, he left her behind.
He tore the city apart looking for Avery. But no matter how deep he dug, she was already gone.
Chapter 5
