8
It was graduation season, and finding an apartment wasn’t easy.
After several days of searching, I ran into Jax.
He mentioned he had several empty apartments and told me to pick one, rent–free.
I didn’t want to be indebted to him, so I insisted on paying rent.
Besides, the scholarship money I had was more than enough to cover my expenses for a while.
The day we finalized the lease, I treated Jax to dinner.
When he was walking me home, we ran into James, who had been trying to corner me for days.
We were strolling in the warm summer breeze, digesting our meal.
As we turned a corner, we saw him, waiting by the villa gate.
He was leaning against the wall, the dim yellow streetlight obscuring his expression.
But I could see the fire in his eyes as he stared at me.
“Laurie, get away from him!”
James’s disgusting possessiveness was flaring up again.
He strode toward us, reaching for my arm.
But Jax’s taller frame moved to block him.
I had been afraid of an angry James since childhood. I instinctively grabbed Jax’s sleeve.
Jax stiffened for a moment.
But in the next second, he firmly took my hand in his.
He gave it a gentle squeeze, as if to tell me not to be afraid.
Standing by his side, I looked up at him and felt, for the first time, what it was like to be protected.
It was an indescribable sense of security.
I felt a little greedy and leaned closer to him.
My action clearly enraged, James.
He lunged forward to pull Jax’s hand away.
But Jax shoved him back.
“Hey, brother–in–law, I’m just walking my girlfriend home. You got a problem with that?”
Jax’s words made James’s eyes bulge with fury,
He seemed to have forgotten that I was no longer his wife.
We had both been reborn. Now, I was just James’s sister with no blood relation.
