CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 3: The Last Time
I took one step forward.
Only one.
Derek’s smirk was still on his face when my fist hit him.
It was quick, controlled, and sharp.
He stumbled backward onto the couch, beer spilling down his shirt, eyes wide with the shock of a man who had never expected consequences to have a body.
Lily gasped and grabbed my sleeve with both hands.
“Nathan, stop!”
I stopped immediately.
I stood over him, breathing hard, my hands shaking at my sides.
Derek touched his mouth, stunned. There was no blood. No fight. No second hit.
Just silence.
For the first time since I walked in, he looked scared.
Good.
I leaned closer, keeping my voice steady.
“That was the last time you ever touched my sister.”
Derek blinked at me, then tried to laugh, but it came out thin.
“You think you can just walk in here and threaten me?”
“No,” I said. “I think I already warned you years ago.”
His face changed.
He remembered.
Two months after the wedding, I had found Lily crying in our mother’s bathroom during Thanksgiving. She told me Derek had “grabbed her too hard” during an argument, then begged me not to say anything because he had apologized.
I took him outside that night and told him if he ever scared her again, I would make sure everyone knew what kind of man he was.
He had smiled then too.
The same useless, smug smile.
But this time, he wasn’t smiling anymore.
Lily tugged at my sleeve, tears sliding down her bruised cheek.
“Please,” she whispered. “He’ll be worse after you leave.”
I turned to her.
“I’m not leaving you here.”
Derek sat up. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Lily froze again.
That was the ugliest part.
Not his words.
Her reaction.
She believed him before she believed escape was possible.
I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.
The call was still active.
Derek stared at the screen.
His face drained.
I had called 911 from the porch the second I saw her flinch at his voice.
May you like
I looked back at him.
“The police are already outside.”
