My Stepbrother Wants Me-Chapter 200: I’m Not The One!

Catherine’s POV

Richard reached the center of the hallway, his presence sucked all the air out of the corridor. My heart was beating fast and I subconsciously kept on pinching myself to control the nervousness I was experiencing. He didn’t look at the staff, his gaze cut straight through the three of us. He stopped a few feet away, his chest heaving slightly, though his expression remained as frozen and hard as marble. The thought of what would happen now kept pressing down on my lungs until every breath felt like a chore.

"I am waiting," Richard said, his voice no longer booming but dropped to a low vibration that was somehow more terrifying. "What. Is. This?"

I felt my knees tremble. I shifted my weight, trying to hide the fact that I was barely standing. My mind was a chaotic mess of worst-case scenarios. I looked at Gabriel’s profile, his jaw was still clenched and his chest heaving from the exertion of the fight. One word from him, one mention of what he saw in that bedroom, and Julian and I were finished. He could rat us out right now. With the way he was raging, I didn’t need anyone to predict that he would expose it all in front of everyone.

Lucy took a step forward, her robe fluttering around her ankles. She didn’t look at Richard; she looked directly at me. I squeezed my eyes tight, with hopes that this bitch would spare me her nonsense, even if it was just for today. When I opened them back, I was met with a sickening glint of triumph in her eyes and a predatory satisfaction that made my stomach turn.

The look on her face made it seem like she knew why this was happening.

"If the boys can’t talk," Lucy said, her voice smooth and calculatedly concerned. She turned her gaze to me, her lips curling into a thin, sharp smile. "Catherine, why don’t you tell everyone what happened? After all, you were right here when the fight began. You seem to be at the center of every storm in this house. Surely you can explain why Gabriel was trying to beat Julian to death."

My heart hammered against my ribs so hard it was painful. This female version of a devil chose to play her role even now. Maybe I shouldn’t have felt pity for her. Maybe Julian should have killed her in her room!

"We are waitingggg," she dragged the last word in a musical tone, clearly showing everyone that she was having her own fun.

I opened my mouth, but no sound came out.

"Leave her out of this, Lucy," Julian’s voice rose, cracking through the tension like a whip.

He stepped in front of me, despite the blood still trickling from his lip and the visible bruising forming on his cheekbone. His eyes were dark with an unstable, protective rage. "This has nothing to do with her. Keep your mouth shut before I make you."

"Shut your mouth, Julian!" Richard roared, the sound echoing off the high ceilings. He turned his fury on him, his finger pointing accusingly at his son’s chest. "I have been standing here for minutes waiting for a direct answer to a direct question, and you have ignored me. But the second Lucy mentions Catherine, you suddenly find your tongue? You can open your mouth to warn her, but you can’t explain why you’re bleeding on my floor?"

Gabriel let out a sharp, mocking scoff. The sound was so unexpected that even Richard paused. He shook his head, looking at Julian with a mixture of pity and newfound clarity.

"Now I get it," Gabriel muttered, loud enough for all of us to hear. He looked at the way Julian was positioned in front of me, the way Julian’s hand was hovering near mine, ready to pull me back at any moment. "I finally understand why you always take it so personally. I understand why everything in this house is a battle for you now."

I felt the blood drain from my face. His words were not direct but they were enough for any smart person to put together. He wasn’t saying it explicitly yet, but the confirmation was there in his eyes. He saw the possession in Julian’s stance, the same thing he had seen in the bedroom.

Gabriel turned away, his shoulders slumped as if the weight was too much to bear. He began to walk toward the stairs, his movements jerky and filled with a suppressed violence.

"Gabriel!" Richard shouted, his voice cracking with authority. "Don’t you dare walk out on me! You are not leaving this spot until you explain why the hell you were beating up your brother in front of the servants!"

Gabriel stopped. For a second, I thought he was going to break—that he was going to turn around and scream the truth at the top of his lungs. He stood perfectly still for three long heartbeats, the tension in the hallway reaching a breaking point. Then, he slowly turned back.

His eyes were redder and colder now. They were burning with a defiance that matched Julian’s. He looked at Richard, not as a son looks at a father, but as a man looks at an obstacle he no longer fears.

"Spare me your nonsense, Father," his voice rang out flat and biting.

Richard’s eyes widened. He looked like he had been slapped. Gabriel had never spoken to him that way.

"I am not Julian....," he continued, stepping toward Richard until they were only inches apart. He didn’t flinch or back down. "...That you can control. You can’t tell me what to do, and you certainly can’t demand answers from me like I’m one of your campaign lackeys. You want to know why I hit him? He is right there, you can ask him but leave me the fuck alone."

His words left everyone shocked. The workers hiding in the shadows gasped, Lucy’s mouth dropped open and even Julian looked stunned, his hand dropping from my shoulder as he watched his brother do something he’d never done.

Gabriel didn’t wait for a response. He didn’t wait for Richard to recover his voice, he simply turned around and walked out.