Chapter 44 - Nothing to talk

Keifer's POV

I watched her command the room, and for the first time in my life, the rage that usually burned like a chaotic wildfire settled into something cold, focused, and utterly devouring. What shocked 😯 me more was that she's ceo of JJM. The girl fighting for food with section e was actually ceo of a multinational company.

Seeing her stand over Clyde's broken form didn't make me want to protect her—it made me want to kneel before her.

Keizer face was a ruin of terror, and I felt a dark, jagged satisfaction clawing at my chest. He had called her a stray. He had tried to crush the only light I ever cared for with the same blood-stained hands he used to stifle my mother's last breaths.

This is for her, too, I thought, my pulse a rhythmic hammer of vengeance. Every share I stripped, every cent I erased from the Watson name, was a late payment for my mother's sacrifice. I felt no regret. I felt a terrifying sense of peace watching the Watson empire burn to clear Jay's path.

She wasn't Jay-Jay today , she was Jasper Jean Mariano,she was a storm. And as I looked at her, I knew I would burn the entire world just to watch her walk through the smoke.

Ion's POV

I stood frozen near the marble pillars, my hands shaking. I thought to protect Jay-jay, the girl who used to cry over a single cup of noodles, crying for a snorlax , loves to annoy her brother. I was ready to take a bullet for the girl who struggled from her past traumas.

But the woman on that stage? She didn't need a shield. She was the sword.

I watched her handle the microphone like a scepter and the bodyguards like they were nothing but dust on her shoes. The way she spoke about global holdings and mortgages—it felt like a physical wall was rising

between us.

This wasn't "Jay-jay" anymore. This was a Queen who had been hiding a crown of thorns all along. I felt a hollow ache of shock; I realized I didn't know her at all.

The girl from the traumatic past was a facade, and the woman before me was someone who could crush me with a glance if she chose.

Author's POV

The moon hung low over the cottage, casting long, jagged shadows that matched the wreckage of the night. Keifer reached for her, his voice cracking with a desperation he had never shown to another living soul.

"Jay, wait," he breathed, the lethal predator from the ballroom replaced by a man who looked like he was drowning. "I think we need to talk... to clear things between us. After what happened tonight, we can't just—"

"There is nothing to talk about between us, Mr. Watson," Jay interrupted. The formal title was a shard of ice, and she watched him flinch as if it had physically pierced his chest

.

"Jay, don't do that," Keifer pleaded, his eyes searching hers for a flicker of the girl he once knew. "We need to discuss... I did everything to protect you. I destroyed my own blood to make sure you were safe. I did it for us."

Jay snapped. The "Queen" mask slipped for a split second, revealing the raw, bleeding core of the girl from Section E.

"Did I give you the right to take decisions for me, Keifer?" she whispered, her voice trembling with a sudden, sharp heat. "You just decided. You took the path you felt was easy, the one where you could play the hero or the martyr without ever asking me what I needed. You didn't discuss it with me then, and you don't get to demand a discussion now."

She looked at him—really looked at him—and the grief in her eyes was more devastating than her anger.

"I appreciate your help tonight, Mr. Watson. Truly. I thank you for standing between me and those guards, and for what you did to your father. But those actions... they don't fill the cracks you made in my heart. You broke me into pieces once, and you don't get to come back and pretend the glue is enough."

"Jay, please—"

"I don't think there is anything for us to talk about in the future. I hope we can have a great collaboration afterwards which will be beneficial for JJM as well Watson group.," she said, her voice regaining its lethal, formal coldness. "I will take my leave now. My team will handle the rest."

She turned her back on him, the click of her heels on the stone sounding like a final, echoing goodbye.