Page 32 of Duchess

“She is not a whore! ANd I helped no one escape!” Anger and shock at finding out that he’d discovered Stephanie, rang out in that shout.

"She is what I say she is!" His shout reverberated against the walls as he raised his hand to smack me, only this time I raised my arm, stopping the impact.

He pressed against my arm with all his strength but as I towered over him, we both knew who would win. Afterall I was not only younger but also stronger. And that only proved to anger him further.

“You’re useless, Caleb. You always were,” he pressed down harder, turning red in the face from his rage.

I never understood why he put me in this position. I wasn't the one who was supposed to take over. My younger brother Sam had been up for the chair since birth. He was the perfect golden child, that is until he decided he wanted to leave the family. One day he was with us, the next he was gone without a trace. It had made no sense to me, why Sam would just disappear like that but I received no answers. My grandfather had been devastated. It was the first and only time I ever saw him have feelings.

After Sam left, he decided that I would be the one to take over. But if I knew then that it meant he would never give me the title until he was dead and buried, then I wouldn’t have taken it. There had been a couple times in these last few years that I wanted to take him down myself, but I held back out of respect, or maybe it was my goddamn submissive nature. One I wanted to bury deep. I lived to get his approval, but I wasn’t Sam. I wasn’t who he wanted me to be and I was tired of taking his shit.

“You dare raise your hand to stop me from issuing the punishment you deserve?” he barked, voice deep with the gravel of decades’ worth of sins.

I didn’t flinch. “You forget yourself, Grandfather. And you forgetwhyyou placed me here. I’m not your lapdog anymore. I’m the CEO of this company, and any movements within this family go throughmenow. I make the decisions, here. So no. I do not answer to your orders.”

His face twisted in fury, and for the first time I relished in my defiance. I watched with satisfaction at the tremor took hold of his clenched fists, the vein in his neck pulsing with the urge to strike.

I turned my back on him.

Let him seethe.

I paused at the mirror across the room, adjusting the collar of my shirt, brushing a smear of blood from my chin. He would’ve dislocated my jaw if I hadn’t blocked the blow. The bastard still had bone in him, I’d give him that. But it didn’t matter. Not anymore. I wouldn’t let him taste my pain. That’s how he won. That’s how hefed… off the pain and defeat of others.

“I’m not keeping secrets,” I said, coolly, without turning. “But you are.”

His silence pressed against the room like a loaded gun.

Then he gave out a low, guttural chuckle which irked me.

“You think you’re ready for this world, boy? You think wearing that tailored suit and pushing your cock into boardroom execs makes you powerful?” His boots scraped against the stone floor as he approached.

“It makes you weak and it makes this company weak.”

“You have no idea how to handle a business, let alone keep under the radar. This isn’t back in your day when killing gave you a reputation, or when you can buy any cop. You have to have money to have power!” I shook, as my voice thundered around us.

“And yet, I had to handle something you didn’t have the balls to.”

I turned, just enough to see the dead in his eyes.

“She was just another slut,” he said, voice like smoke and rot. “Told me theDuchessgave the orders at the shipping docks. Whispered the name Stephanie Winters. Said the bitch was still alive.”

My gut tightened.

“What did you do?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

He smiled. Not with his mouth, but with his madness.

“She had a sweet mouth, that one. Sweet cunt too. Gripped my cock like she wanted to keep it. Begged like they always do, until the truth spilled out.” He leaned in, breath rancid with power and bourbon. “I slit her throat while she came. Made my cock explode watching her die. Took a bit to get her off me, her cunt had clenched down on me, trapping me inside her.” He laughed, a void in his eyes. “It was worth it.”

My fists clenched at my sides, the rage bleeding into my vision.

“You sick fuck.”

“She gave me everything I needed,” he interrupted, unbothered by my disgust. “I always knew about your obsession with that woman. Always knew there would come a day you would betray your family for that whore.”

“I said…Do. Not. Call her that.” My voice was low with a warning of violence.

“Ozan’s already cleaning the mess. And I’ve sent orders toeraseStephanie Winters. For good this time. No more loose ends.”

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