Page 159 of Maddening Fixation

It wasn’t.

His eyes were already on me.

Only me.

The rest of the room might as well have ceased to exist. The men, the weapons, Zachary’s voice—all of it seemed to fade into the background beneath the weight of his unwavering stare.

His stare was so intense that I felt compelled to break the silence.

“Mr. Zachary, why are you asking such an irrelevant question?” I asked, my voice steady. “Yes, I am his wife. What does that have to do with this transaction?”

I gestured toward the men surrounding us.

“You should be reprimanding your son for nearly turning a business disagreement into a bloodbath. If we hadn’t shown restraint, you and half the men in this room would already be dead.”

The crooked smile vanished from Zachary’s face. The color drained from his weathered features.

For one brief second, he simply stared at me.

Then his face darkened with fury.

His jaw clenched so hard I could see the muscle twitch beneath his skin.

“You—”

He surged toward me.

His hand came up, fast and vicious, his palm cutting through the air toward my face.

I caught his wrist before it could reach me.

The impact barely moved me.

I twisted his arm aside and released him immediately, taking several measured steps backward.

The room went silent.

Zachary stared at his own hand as though he couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.

I met his furious gaze without flinching.

“If you want a one-on-one fight, Mr. Zachary, say so.”

I tilted my head slightly.

“But don’t mistake me for a woman who will stand still and let you hit her because you’re an older man.”

His nostrils flared.

“I won’t tolerate that kind of disrespect again.” I took another step back. “Try it a second time, and I won’t simply stop you.”

The humiliation hit him harder than my words.

His face had turned crimson, his chest rising and falling heavily as he struggled to contain the rage boiling beneath his skin.

He had expected me to cower.

To accept the slap.