Page 110 of The Rules
His eyes didn’t leave hers.
No softness. No forgiveness.
Just the brutal, inescapable truth:
He didn’t trust her.
Not with hisfuture.
Benjamin strode to his desk, each step precise and controlled despite the fury coursing through him. His mind was a battlefield of rage and calculation, each thought sharper than the last. He yanked open the drawer.
The box felt heavy in his hand. Heavier than it should.
He tossed it across the desk toward her.
It landed like a gunshot between them.
Kath stared at it, her tear-streaked face going even paler as recognition dawned. Her hands trembled at her sides, her composure completely shattered now.
"What is this?" she asked, her voice small, breathless, already knowing the answer.
Benjamin met her gaze, his expression carved from stone. "Plan B," he said, each word quiet. Cruel. Final. "Take it. Now."
He watched as she reached for the box with shaking hands. She didn't argue. Didn't hesitate. Her fingers fumbled with the packaging, tearing it open with desperate, jerky movements.
Something twisted in his chest as he watched her—not sympathy, but something darker. The knowledge that she was doing this because she knew there was no way out. Because she understood exactly how badly she had miscalculated.
There's nothing left to say, he thought, watching her with cold detachment.Nothing she could say that would make this okay.
She looked small standing there, the pill in her palm, her shoulders hunched as if trying to make herself disappear.
Gone was the confident lawyer who challenged him in meetings. Gone was the seductive dancer who had made him lose control. All that remained was this—a woman cornered by her own deception.
And when she swallowed that pill?
Benjamin saw it in her eyes—her pride went with it.
That fierce, defiant spirit that had drawn him to her in the first place crumbled before him, washing away with each tear that fell.
"Now pack your shit, Winters," he said, voice flat and final. "You're done here."
No yelling. No tantrum. Just a fucking verdict.
The words hung in the air between them, heavy as a death sentence. He could see the moment they landed—the slight flinch, the way her shoulders curved inward for just a second before she forced them straight again.
He expected her to fight. To argue. To remind him of her value to the firm, her contributions to their cases. The Katherine Winters he knew would never surrender without a battle, would never accept defeat without exhausting every possible avenue of resistance.
But she didn't.
She just nodded once, the movement so small it was barely perceptible. Her face was blank now, tears drying on her cheeks, leaving faint tracks through her makeup. She looked... hollow. Like something vital had been carved out of her.
Benjamin turned away, unable to look at her any longer.
He fixed his gaze on the window, on the city sprawling below them, uncaring and oblivious to the destruction happening in this room. He heard her movements behind him—the soft rustle of fabric as she gathered her things.
He didn't watch her go. Not with his eyes.
But he heard it. The soft drag of her heels against the carpet. The whisper of the door opening. The final, definitive click as it closed behind her.
