One Night Stand With My Husband’s Brother

Mackenzie knew that Jeffrey had an arsenal of hotshot lawyers at his disposal, along with his cunning, scheming bitch of a mother. It would cost them nothing to tweak the law a little bit to come for her kids.

Wealthy people are scary.

The Axfords are scarier.

She was helpless against them. Broke, trying so hard to make ends meet, she could barely afford a good lawyer if it came to that. In the best case scenario, she would be only to get shared custody of her kids… with Jeffrey.

The mere thought was a nightmare.

Her poor, innocent babies would become mere tools in the hands of Eleanor and Jeffrey. Then again, the truth of her infidelity would come to light in front of the entire world.

Not many things about the Axfords go unnoticed by the press, so the scandal of her having kids for her husband’s stepbrother, while still married… was going to mess up her reputation.

Everyone would see her as an infidel. Mackenzie didn’t have the heart to endure that kind of public judgement.

At this point, Chase’s real intentions seemed to be less scary than these other scenarios.

In the next hour, Chase had made her eat a reasonable amount of the meals he had ordered, despite the fact that he barely ate, himself. Granted she felt a little more relaxed after getting something warm and delicious in her stomach, despite the fact that she was blushing all through when Chase wouldn’t take his gaze off her.

But now, the door slowly opened and Manager Ty meekly walked in. He was still overwhelmed by Chase’s anger earlier.

“I hope you enjoyed your meal?” He smiled.

His question received no answer.

Mackenzie felt extremely uncomfortable sitting beside Chase while she was supposed to be working. There were already rumors spreading among the staff about how Mackenzie was being given special treatment, and Chase was just making everything worse by showing up here, acting like her… lover.

She stood up, muttering. “I’m fine now. I’ll go with Manager Ty and continue with my work.”

Chase clenched his jaw at her words, then he got up too, grabbing her hand. “How the hell is this fine?”

Her hand looked worse than it did earlier. The swelling had doubled, and the red color had mixed with some purple discoloration. And now, the pain was escalating from dull to intense.

Mackenzie had to admit that she was injured. That man had grabbed her way too hard, almost crushing her bones.

He detached her name tag from her uniform and dropped it on the table along with a check footing the bills. The bitter, burning surge of anger was filling him up again from one glance at her hand.

“That fucking bastard. I’m going to make sure he faces the wrath of seven hells in jail.” His tone held ruthless finality.

Manager Ty nodded in agreement, “He and his group of friends have all been detained for sexual assault. Don’t be too bothered, sir. The police will definitely pursue the case as long as Mackenzie presses charges.”

Mackenzie sighed. “Can you please excuse us, Manger Ty?”

He glanced at Mackenzie, then stole a quick glance at Chase before he began to move backwards. “Alright, then.”

When the door closed behind him, she turned to look at Chase.

“I don’t want to drag you into my life, Chase. Even if you didn’t show up when you did, I could have gotten a way to defend myself. I’m no longer the helpless Mackenzie’s from four years ago who couldn’t even protect herself even if her life depended on it.”

“You dragged me into your life the moment you asked me to make love to you, Mackenzie.” He said in a low tone. “From then on, I have been unwilling to stop being involved with you.”

At the reminder of their very intimate past, Mackenzie felt her belly flutter.

Chase continued, a little more harshly. “You have to press charges immediately.”

“I’m going to. But I’ll go to the station alone.”

“Fine. My security guards will take you to the hospital and straight to the police station after you get your hand attended to. And if you try to protest, I will come with you to the police station myself.”

She let out a weary sigh, resigning herself to his will.

She could not risk him coming along with her. Being with Chase in public would throw attention on her, and she definitely didn’t want them to be seen together. It was safer for her that way.

So, she would succumb to his will, to keep him from tagging along.

Chase gave his security guards specific details to drive Mackenzie to the hospital, inform the doctors to give her the best emergency treatment, and care. She was directly from the CEO, so no doctor would dare cause a delay.

His guards brought another car to drive Mackenzie in, while he got in his Lamborghini and restlessly trailed after them from behind. Letting Mackenzie out of his sight was out of the question.

He needed to be around her, even if it meant following her in a black car like an obsessive creep.

***************

“Are you feeling better?”

“Does it hurt when I do this?”

“Get her some cool glass of water!”

Instructions were being passed around the moment Mackenzie stepped into Axford Medicals. She was immediately flanked by doting nurses who guided her to a ward where a doctor stood warm and welcoming, ready to treat her hand.

As they hovered around her, her anxiety levels soared. She sucked in a deep breath of the sterile hospital air, trying to remind herself that she had no reason to be scared of being here.

Jeffrey or Eleanor would definitely not be randomly walking in the hospital. Even if, in the slightest chance that they were, it was a massive skyscraper building. She would never run into them.

Slowly, she began to relax to an extent, even if her anxiety remained.

Her swollen hand was massaged back to a healthy size with medicated ointment, before it was bandaged to let it heal up. She was instructed not to strain it for some days until the discoloration had faded off and was given drug prescriptions for the pain.

The security guards went to get the drugs, before driving her to the station.

It was a relatively quick process. The cops took her statement and allowed her fill the necessary forms to press sexual assault charges against the men. Then, she was back in the car, with the security driving her back home.

Chase watched his security men drive Mackenzie down the road, then he picked his black face cap from the passenger seat and pulled it over his head. Stepping out, he strode straight into the station, imposingly.

The cops were taken aback, watching as he walked straight to the counter.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“A woman came in here moments ago, a victim of sexual harassment and assault from the group of bastards you currently have detained.” He started in a harsh tone.

“Yes… sir-” a look of recognition crossed his face.

“-Good. Those bastards have to be duly punished. No bail, no leniency until they have paid dearly for ganging up on that woman.” Chase stepped closer, his shadowed face staring straight at a nervous cop. “You hear me? If not, I’ll have to take the law into my own hands, and it would be very ugly.”

Another cop came to the other one’s rescue, reassuring Chase. “We don’t have to resort to that, sir. The woman in question has just pressed charges. Are you by any chance… her husband?”

Chase hesitated, and when he finally answered, he had deflected the question. “I hope you do your job well, officers. For their sakes.”

Mackenzie stepped into the apartment, thoroughly drained by the events of the day. As she stepped out of her shoes, she ran her hand through her hair, remembering Chase’s deep voice calling it beautiful.

Shaking her head slightly, she shut out that thought and moved further into the living room. She saw Charlotte slumped on the floor, head resting against her couch, with her hair flying in an unkempt manner.

Alarm jolted through her immediately.

“Charlotte?” She gasped, hurrying closer.

That was heard she heard the sounds of sobs and sniffles coming from Charlotte’s bowed head. She hurried to kneel beside her, holding her shoulders so she would look up.

Concern laced her voice, “Why are you crying, Charlotte? What’s wrong?!”

Charlotte finally looked at her, with bloodshot eyes spilling with tears. The mascara under her eyes were running down her cheeks, and her skin was flushed red with agony. She sniffled hard, clutching at Mackenzie’s hand desperately.

“Mackenzie, what so I do? My mom just collapsed due to her heart condition, and they have to do a surgery immediately! The only hospital in North Dakota is filled and can’t even take care of her. I have no money to get her to Greensville! She’s dying!!”