One of the bodyguards stationed at the entrance pulled the towering glass doors open, revealing a scene that made Bryce stop in his tracks.
The room was packed.
Armed men dressed in matching black suits lined one side of the enormous living room with military precision, each carrying a rifle as though violence could erupt at any moment.
Opposite them stood another group of equally imposing men, their attire different enough to make it obvious they belonged to another organization entirely.
The atmosphere between the two factions was so tense that it felt as though a single careless word would be enough to ignite a bloodbath.
Bryce could hear his own heartbeat.
Every violent thud echoed inside his chest until it drowned out almost every other sound around him.
His legs, already unsteady from everything that had happened throughout the day, weakened even further. A wave of dizziness swept over him, accompanied by the familiar nausea that had refused to leave him since his world had begun falling apart.
His gaze drifted deeper into the room.
A middle aged man sat comfortably on one of the luxurious leather sofas, one leg crossed over the other, completely at ease despite the dozens of loaded weapons surrounding him.
The effortless authority he carried made introductions unnecessary.
That had to be, Hillary Sinclair, Dave’s father.
The resemblance between them was unmistakable.
The same facial structure.
The same sharp eyes.
The same commanding presence.
It almost felt like looking at Dave several decades into the future.
Bryce couldn’t help concluding that the man had called Dave "Sinclair Junior" because of how strikingly he resembled his father.
Seated beside him was a graceful woman whose elegance left little doubt she was his wife. Unlike everyone else in the room, she appeared almost entertained by the unfolding confrontation, as though scenes like this had long since become part of her daily life.
Not far from her sat two men who appeared a few years older than Dave.
They looked identical.
Twins.
They carried traces of their father’s features, but neither resembled him as strongly as Dave did.
Beside them sat a young woman who looked older than Dave but younger than the twins.
Without anyone saying a word, Bryce had already pieced it together.
Dave was the youngest.
The sheer size of Dave’s family took Bryce by surprise. He had learned about Dave’s family in less than ten seconds than he had throughout their entire relationship.
"This isn’t how I imagined welcoming my boyfriend home."
Dave’s voice cut through the silence as he stepped farther inside.
"Mr. Anderson, I suggest you leave and allow me that privilege. Whatever brought you here can wait. This is far more important."
Bryce remained rooted at the doorway, unable to bring himself to step inside. Dave noticed almost immediately.
He turned back, reached for Bryce’s hand, and this time didn’t give him the opportunity to pull away before guiding him into the room.
Across the living room, Kara’s expression darkened.
Her fingers slowly tightened into a fist.
"Sinclair," the older man addressed Dave’s father, ignoring Dave completely. "We’ve known each other for years. We’ve built our businesses together, expanded our influence together, and discussed uniting our families through our children more times than I can count."
His eyes shifted toward Bryce with open disdain.
"And now you’re prepared to throw all of that away... for this?"
He pointed directly at Bryce.
"You’d rather let your son throw his future away on a man? A useless nobody without a name worthy of..."
Dave crossed the distance between them so quickly that Bryce barely saw him move.
One moment the older man was speaking.
The next, Dave’s hand was locked around his throat.
The room fell deathly silent.
"Say another word about him," Dave said quietly, his voice carrying a chilling calm that unsettled Bryce far more than shouting ever could, "and you won’t leave this house alive."
His grip tightened.
"You know I don’t make empty threats."
For several suffocating seconds, nobody moved.
Then Dave released him.
The older man stumbled backward, coughing violently as he struggled to regain his balance.
Dave looked at him without the slightest hint of regret.
"So what if I’m with a man?"
His voice rang clearly through the room.
"What exactly is he incapable of giving me? Love? Happiness? Or... Forget it."
Dave’s father leaned back comfortably against the sofa, the corners of his mouth lifting into a faint smile.
"Well, my son wants what he wants," he said, his deep voice calm and utterly unbothered. "What can I say?" he added, quiet amusement woven into every word.
Bryce barely registered words Dave or his father said to Anderson.
His thoughts had snagged on a single word Anderson had uttered, refusing to move past it.
Useless.
Again.
Why did that word keep finding him?
The more he thought about it, the deeper it burrowed beneath his skin, and dragged his thoughts back to Vincent.
To everything that had happened only hours earlier.
He immediately forced the memories aside.
He had spent every moment since the rejection trying not to think about Vincent.
The emotional ache left behind by the rejection infuriated him more than the rejection itself. He had no reason to care. It wasn’t as though he had fallen in love with Vincent.
...or even liked him.
Then why did it hurt so much?
Perhaps he was only hurting because Vincent’s rejection had destroyed the plans he had begun building in his own mind?
"Dave," Kara said, her voice trembling with barely restrained anger, "we’ve been together for four years. If you loved him that much, you wouldn’t have been cheating on him with me all this time. You..."
"Shut up."
Dave’s voice sliced through hers before she could continue.
The sharpness of it made everyone in the room fall silent for a brief moment, and Bryce didn’t miss the way Dave glanced at him, as though he desperately wanted to stop him from hearing whatever Kara was about to reveal.
Four years.
The number struck Bryce.
For four years Dave had been sleeping with someone else while returning home every day to tell Bryce he was the only person he had ever wanted.
A surge of anger climbed into Bryce’s chest so violently that breathing suddenly became difficult.
He had looked like a complete fool.
"At least I knew there was someone else," Kara continued bitterly, refusing to back down. "You told me about him. You said he wasn’t important enough to stop you from seeing me." Her gaze shifted to Bryce. "But did he even know about me?"
"I never said anything like that, Kara." Dave’s voice hardened. "Shut up before you really get under my skin."
He turned toward Bryce, the words of an explanation already on the tip of his tongue.
Instead, his gaze drifted back to Kara. Veins stood out along his neck as he stared at her with open fury.
"We started seeing each other because our parents wanted us to," he said through clenched teeth. "It was never about love. I told you from the beginning there was someone else I really liked. You chose to ignore it. You kept showing up anyway."
His voice sank into something far colder than before as he held her gaze without wavering.
"I don’t have feelings for you," he said, each word stripped of even the slightest trace of hesitation. "And you don’t love me either. Stop trying to make this into something it was never meant to be."
"I do love you!"
Kara’s voice cracked as she shouted back.
"How can you say that after everything I’ve shown you?"
Dave didn’t answer.
Instead, his father spoke.
"Alright, enough. The arrangement was my idea. I proposed it because I didn’t know my son already had someone he genuinely cared about."
His eyes settled on Mr. Anderson.
"Anderson..."
His voice remained steady, almost pleasant, yet something beneath it made the atmosphere noticeably heavier.
"Don’t push me into handling this the same way I deal with everyone else who insists on becoming a problem. My son won’t spend the rest of his life with someone he doesn’t want."
His gaze briefly drifted toward Bryce before returning to the older man.
"In the near future, he’ll marry whoever he chooses. So let’s end this conversation while we’re still friends."
His expression hardened almost imperceptibly.
"Or keep pressing the matter until you receive the outcome you’re asking for."
Marry?!
The word echoed relentlessly inside Bryce’s head.
Soon!?
His heart skipped a beat.
The room suddenly felt much smaller.
This was insane.
Everything happening around him belonged in someone else’s life, not his own.
His lips parted instinctively.
He wanted to object. To tell them they were making decisions about his life as though he weren’t standing right there.
But the words refused to come.
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