Filed To Story: The Broken-Hearted She and The Icy He Book PDF Free
She sneered. “Police? Even if they come, they’ll only put you in your place.”
To prove her point, she smugly fastened a diamond watch around her wrist.
Lily had met many shameless women before-Mathilda, Elsa-but Marilyn’s gall still managed to astound her.
She could not allow Marilyn to walk away with James’s gifts. Lily stepped forward, reaching for the handbags stuffed with stolen treasures.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
Marilyn had carefully chosen those jewels and watches, planning to leave Lily only the scraps.
She had picked out the largest stones, the finest settings. The rest, she would take later, after she had forced Lily out of the Luke family.
Now, seeing Lily try to snatch them back, rage flared. She raised her hand, aiming a slap at Lily’s face.
But Lily had learned well during the years she’d been bullied by Mathilda and the others.
When women fought, the key was to seize the hair.
Before Marilyn’s hand could land, Lily caught her wrist with one hand and grabbed her hair with the other, swinging her own hand so that Marilyn’s palm cracked across her own cheek.
“Ah! You bitch!”
Humiliated by being forced to slap herself, Marilyn snapped. Her features twisted with fury as she tried to retaliate.
But Lily’s strength outmatched hers completely.
No matter how Marilyn strained, she couldn’t land a blow. Lily only tightened her grip on her hair, raining slap after slap-ten, twelve in a row-until Marilyn’s head spun, her eyes seeing stars, too stunned to fight back.
When she was satisfied, Lily yanked away the handbags stuffed with jewelry and reached for the diamond necklaces hanging around Marilyn’s neck.
“Don’t touch me, you slut!”
Marilyn screeched, her voice breaking. “These are my bags! My jewels! How dare you take what’s mine?”
She tried to snatch the bags back, but Lily’s grip was too strong.
Seeing Lily’s fingers tugging at the prized necklaces, Marilyn panicked. She shoved herself free and bolted for the door, shrieking.
The purple diamond pendant at her throat-larger than a pigeon’s egg-was her favorite. She couldn’t let Lily take it.
Just then, Blanc descended the stairs with his three sons after finishing a discussion in his study.
At the sight of Victor, Marilyn’s demeanor transformed. She swallowed her fury, let her face crumple pitifully, and let tears spill like pearls from a broken string.
“Victor, save me! I just went to see my sister-in-law in her room, but she suddenly went mad and attacked me! She pulled my hair, slapped me over and over. I barely managed to escape. It hurts so much!”
The four Luke men turned their eyes toward her, their gazes instantly darkening.
Marilyn’s cheeks bore bright, obvious handprints, her carefully styled hair a tangled mess. She looked like a pitiful victim.
She expected that her tears would move them, that they would rush to comfort her.
But as she sobbed and stole glances at their faces, she saw no pity.
Only sharpness. And cold disapproval.
Marilyn’s heart gave a violent jolt.
Why were they looking at her like that?
No, it had to be because of Lily. They must have been disgusted by her, not her- the pitiful victim.
Yes, that was it. She was innocent, Lily was the cruel aggressor. Of course the Luke family men would despise Lily.
Convinced of her own story, Marilyn wept harder, tears spilling in streams, her voice trembling as if the whole world had wronged her.
“My face is swollen from her hitting me. Victor, it hurts… it hurts so much…”
But the more she cried, the darker the expressions of the four Luke men became.
Blanc and Ivan didn’t believe for a second that Lily would strike without cause. Marilyn’s character was plainly rotten; no amount of tears could change that.
Even Victor’s eyes grew cold with disappointment as he looked at her.
He trusted James’s judgment, and he had interacted with Lily himself. His sister- in-law was not the sort to bully others without reason.
Marilyn, on the other hand, had only continued to let him down. Earlier today, he had seen her demand a servant bring her juice-only to throw it in the servant’s face when the taste didn’t please her.
She had sneered that servants were lowly, unworthy.
Lowly? And what exactly did she think she was?
James’s gaze was sharp as ice.
He instantly noticed the diamond necklaces dangling from Marilyn’s throat, the diamond watch and bracelet on her wrist, the ruby earrings in her ears.
He had bought every one of those pieces for Lily. What were they doing on
Marilyn?
“What happened here?”
From downstairs, Henry, Grace, and Nancy had heard the commotion and quickly came up in the elevator.
“Grandfather, Grandmother, Mother…”
Seeing the elders, Marilyn cried even harder, her voice catching as though she could barely speak.
“Look at what Lily did to me…”
“I’m Victor’s savior. I even gave him my body. I am your Luke family daughter-in- law. How could she hit me, humiliate me like this?”
Henry, Grace, and Nancy exchanged heavy looks.
Gratitude for saving a life should indeed be repaid. But Marilyn wielded those words like a weapon, parading them at every opportunity-it left a sour taste in their mouths.
And they had already asked Victor about the night before. They knew he had been drugged, that the girl had been trapped as well. The two had simply helped each other. Yet Marilyn painted it as if she alone had sacrificed everything to save him.
“I don’t believe Lily would ever hit someone for no reason. If she struck you, you must have done something to cross her line.” then
“Lily doesn’t bully people,” James and Ivan said almost at the same time, their voices sharp, cutting through Marilyn’s sobbing.
“She did it on purpose!”
Marilyn’s face throbbed with pain, her cheeks swollen, but even then James and Ivan sided with Lily. The injustice burned her to the core.
She lifted her glistening eyes toward them, looking wounded, betrayed. “She slapped me a dozen times. It hurt so much… I really hurt…”
But Victor’s gaze stayed cold. “Lily has always been fair and clear about right and wrong. I don’t believe she attacked you without cause. Did you really go to her room just to have a friendly chat?”
“I…”
Of course she hadn’t.
She had overheard from the servants that the vast three-hundred-square-meter suite on the second floor had been given to Lily. She had gone out of curiosity.
And what she found there-so many jewels, limited-edition handbags, watches- had left her burning with greed.
They were too fine for Lily, a mere foster child, a castoff. She didn’t deserve them. They should belong to her.
But she wasn’t foolish enough to say that aloud.
Sobbing weakly, she finally managed, “I only wanted to grow closer to Lily, to share my thoughts. We’re sisters-in-law, family. We should get along. I would never dare offend her…”
“Hah! You make it sound so sweet. I don’t believe for a second you wanted to get along with her,” Ivan scoffed, rolling his eyes. If it weren’t for Victor, he would have cursed her out already.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.