I Married My Ex's Billionaire Father-Chapter 279: Not Leaving You Again

Lyse didn’t remember the drive home any more than she remembered arriving at the detention center. Everything after seeing Lottie’s unmoving form in that medical cell and imagining Brooke motionless and covered in a sheet felt like a blur, a smear of sound and light and dread pressing on every part of her.

She walked into her building like she was sleepwalking.

The lobby looked too bright, too normal, too alive. People chatted by the mailboxes. Someone laughed near the elevator. The scent of coffee drifted from the café downstairs.

It felt obscene that the world kept turning.

Lyse stepped into the elevator, pressed her floor, and held her breath.

By the time the doors slid open, she was barely upright.

She stepped out—

—and froze.

Brandon was pacing in front of her apartment door like a volcano about to rupture.

His head snapped up the moment he heard her heels.

"Lyse."

His tone was sharp, furious, edged with something she had learned long ago to fear.

"Where the hell have you been?"

Her grip on her purse tightened.

Not now.

She couldn’t deal with this now.

"Brandon, please I..."

"You what?" he snapped, storming toward her. "Do you have any idea how unprofessional, how ridiculous, how embarrassing you made me look today? I set up a collaboration worth millions of dollars, and you just vanish? No call. No text. No message."

Lyse flinched, eyes stingy, throat closing. "Brandon... not today."

He ignored her entirely.

"Do you even take your career seriously?" he demanded. "This isn’t some little hobby anymore. People rely on you. I rely on you. And you just..."

"Brandon, stop," she whispered, voice cracking.

He didn’t.

"You think people will want to work with you if you keep pulling shit like this? You think— Lyse, look at me!"

Her heart hammered painfully against her ribs, breath shortening. She pressed a hand against the wall to steady herself.

"I said look at me," he hissed, stepping too close.

She recoiled instinctively.

She didn’t even realize she was shaking until he grabbed her wrist.

And that’s when the hallway exploded.

A force slammed into Brandon from the side so hard he flew into the opposite wall. He hit with a choked grunt and collapsed onto the floor.

Lyse yelped, stumbling backward, and then froze when she saw who was standing where Brandon had been.

Levi.

Breathing hard. Suit jacket open, hair slightly disheveled, eyes blazing with something wild and furious and absolutely lethal.

He looked like he had sprinted through hell to get here.

"Don’t you touch her," Levi growled, voice so low it vibrated through the hallway.

Brandon groaned, pushing himself up. "Levi, what the hell—?!"

Levi didn’t even look at him.

His focus was locked entirely, solely, devastatingly on Lyse.

Her chin trembled. She opened her mouth but nothing came out.

He stepped toward her, slow, cautious, as if approaching a wounded animal.

"Lyse," he said softly.

Something inside her snapped.

A sound tore out of her, not a word, not even a sob. Just a broken, muffled gasp as her knees gave out.

Levi was there before she hit the floor.

His arms wrapped around her, strong and steady, pulling her against him like she was the only thing in the world he needed to protect. Her fingers fisted in his shirt, desperate, clinging, shaking.

He didn’t ask her what was wrong.

He didn’t demand answers.

He didn’t tell her it would be okay. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

He just held her.

Held her like he had been waiting to.

Behind them, Brandon staggered to his feet, livid. "Lyse, don’t... don’t let him manipulate you. He lied to you, he is manipulating you! He—"

Levi turned his head, eyes dark as a storm. "If you take one more step toward her, I swear to God!"

Brandon froze.

Fear flickered across his face, real fear before he scoffed and backed away, rubbing his jaw.

"This isn’t over," Brandon spat, glare bouncing between them. "You’ll regret choosing him over me."

Levi didn’t even dignify it with an answer.

He simply shifted Lyse in his arms, lifting her fully off her feet.

"Open the door," he murmured to her.

She reached out with trembling fingers and unlocked it.

He carried her inside without another glance at Brandon and shut the door firmly behind them.

The moment it clicked closed, Lyse broke.

Truly broke.

Sobs tore through her, violent, uncontrollable. Her whole body shook, grief and fear and shock crashing through her in waves she couldn’t control. Levi held her tighter, lowering them both onto the couch.

"Shh," he breathed, brushing her hair away from her damp cheeks. "I’ve got you. It’s okay. Just breathe. I’m here."

She buried her face in his chest, clutching him like he was the last solid thing in a collapsing world.

"Lottie, she’s... she’s in a coma," she choked out between sobs.

Levi’s hand froze for a fraction of a second in her hair.

"And Brooke" Her voice broke entirely. "Brooke’s dead. They found her dead in her cell."

Levi inhaled sharply.

And then his arms around her tightened with a protective ferocity that made Lyse’s eyes spill over again.

She kept talking, rambling, gasping, words slipping out in broken fragments as she tried to explain, to understand, to breathe.

Levi didn’t interrupt.

Didn’t question her.

Didn’t push.

He let her cry into him, let her fall apart, let her break open every wall she had tried so hard to hold up.

Hours passed like that.

Her tears soaked his shirt.

Her voice went hoarse.

Her body trembled until exhaustion finally pulled her under.

When her sobs faded into quiet, shallow breaths, Levi shifted just enough to settle her head more comfortably against his chest.

He rested his chin on her hair.

His voice was barely a whisper.

"I’m not leaving you again."

He cradled her closer.

"Not tonight. Not ever."

Lyse, unconscious, didn’t answer.

But her fingers remained curled in his shirt, as if even in sleep, she refused to let him go.

And Levi stayed awake long into the night holding her, eyes fixed on the door as if daring the world to try hurting her one more time.

Because anyone who tried would have to go through him first.