From Deadbeat To Doting; Something Is Wrong With My Husband!-Chapter 38: Don’t you ever touch me again!

She knew the bone snapped when she heard the flash of hot whiteness in her ankle, but she knew that the pain in her chest was worse than that of the broken bone.

Flash! Flash! Flash!

Every time the shutters fired, it sounded like a firing squad. Brianna tried crawling away to salvage what little dignity she had left, but the reporters closed in tighter and tighter forming a circle around her, as if they sensed that a dying creature lay before them, their lens so close to her terrified reflection that she could almost see herself reflected in the glass of the cameras.

"Look at the "Marriage Goddess" now... I simply cannot believe this is the face of a woman who sits in judgment of others on television."

Brianna’s breaths were coming in short, jerky gasps. The insults were killing her; they were burying her alive. The cold, slick oil from the garage floor was seeping into her skin.

Infertility. Whore. Vampire.

Tears from her helplessness filled her eyes as she glanced up at the wall of cameras, her eyesight blurring. The blood continued to pump, and her thin hand moved to her ankle.

She was alone and trapped.

The garage’s temperature dropped ten degrees when a steady beat of footsteps was heard.

CRUNCH.

Suddenly, a handcrafted Italian leather shoe pinned the lead cameraman’s camera to the ground. The lens—worth more than the man’s yearly salary—was broken into a thousand pieces with the heartbreaking sound of glass and plastic breaking!

The cameraman’s face twisted in rage as he spun around to see the imbecile! "Who the hell—!" he exclaimed, but the words died in his throat. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

His face grew pale white, and his knees turned to jelly.

Lucian Colburn stood there with a homicidal sub-zero calm in his gaze and his suit jacket nicely draped over his broad shoulders. Thomas and the two enormous bodyguards in black suits were behind him.

Lucian avoided looking at the damaged camera or the reporters. He glanced down at Brianna, who was lying on the ground, her ankle sore and her hands hurting.

He exuded a terrible, evil energy. He knelt in the rubble without saying anything.

"P-President Colburn..." one reporter stammered, backpedaling so fast she tripped over her own feet. "We... we were just asking questions... the public has a right to—"

Why was president Lucian here? Was he also here to attack Dr. Colburn? It made sense since he said years ago to a reporter that he thought psychologists were liars.

Lucian had indeed said that to shame his wife.

In order to shield Brianna from the remaining lenses, he reached out and held the back of her head, drawing her face into the security of his chest.

"The public has a right to the truth." Lucian’s baritone voice rang out. "And the truth is, you’ve just assaulted my wife."

The reporters were paralyzed! Some had their fingers still frozen on their shutters, but no one dared to click!

"W-wife? President Lucian sir! We weren’t aware!"

The air in the garage was so thick with President Lucian’s presence that breathing felt impossible!

"Thomas."

"Sir." Thomas stepped closer, keeping his hands behind his back in an almost bow.

"I want every camera in this garage destroyed. Not just the footage. The equipment. If a single person here leaves with a memory card, I want you to sue them and the agency they work for."

"Understood, sir."

With that, the bodyguards started their tasks. The reporters, who had been so brave while harassing a lone woman, began to scream as their expensive gear was snatched and systematically smashed against the concrete.

"P-president Lucian, we didn’t know! We were just messing around. That’s how we get paid!"

"Please, just forgive us this once! We can’t be paid if the agency doesn’t have a story." a reporter cried. The agency had picked them after months of job hunting and given them the expensive camera to attack Dr. Colburn today. They are already in huge debts, now this.

If only they knew!

Lucian ignored the pleas. He shifted his weight, sliding one arm beneath Brianna’s knees and the other behind her back. He hoisted her up with an effortless strength. He even pondered why she felt so weightless to him and why she seemed so small.

Was it because she hadn’t been eating well?

Breathing out heavily, Brianna’s fingers reflexively grabbed at his lapels. He smelled, as he always, of the expensive cologne she had promised to wash out, only now it felt like the cologne of freedom instead of the scent of entrapment.

Lucian carried Brianna toward the Cadillac. Thomas held the door open, letting his eyes briefly flicker to Brianna’s swollen ankle with a hint of something that looked almost like... pity?

Placing her inside the car, he climbed in after her. Brianna didn’t know why he of all people had been the one seeing her so small and broken.

Lucian’s heavy breathing was a sign of the rage still simmering beneath his skin. He saw everything. Though he had been amused watching her snap at the reporter, the moment they touched her and she hit the ground... something in him had snapped.

He pulled a silk handkerchief from his chest pocket and reached out, roughly but carefully wiping a bit of garage oil from her cheek.

She had her eyes fixed on him with a mixture of raw shock and boiling hatred.

"You look pathetic," he said honestly just as he leaned back into the interior.

"And whose fault is that? If you hadn’t survived, I wouldn’t have—"

Brianna cut herself off when Lucian leaned across the space between them, tightening his fingers slightly on her chin.

Before she could react, his lips brushed against hers. He pulled away just enough to see the shock in her widened eyes before he leaned in again.

It was a brutal demanding kiss. It tasted of suppressed rage and the cold mint he always used. He didn’t wait for her consent; he just took what he wanted.

Brianna wanted to throw up!

She shoved his chest with enough force to send him back away from her red and swollen lips.

"Why would you do that?! Don’t you ever touch me again!"