As expected, I had already found myself separated from Jane, not even halfway through the night. I must’ve been only able to stay by her sight for a good hour before I was pulled away from Jane by a group of my company’s board members, families that have been allied with Cordova Industries since my great-great-great grandfather’s time. And it didn’t help that my father was part of the group of old geezers who were trying to pull me away from my Jane.
With much coaxing on Jane’s part and a promise to stay within my sight, she eventually managed to get me to detach myself from her.
I reluctantly left her side and followed the others to the reserved upper balcony of the hall overlooking the entire floor.
The old geezers had brought along their successors in hopes of showing off their sons. Some were bragging about how well their sons did in college, while others were talking about how their sons already took over a portion of their company but not without kissing up to my father, saying that their son’s achievements were still nothing compared to mine. Like how I took over the entire company straight out of college or how I expanded Cordova Industries ten-fold within the first two years.
But I could honestly care less.
I was much more occupied with watching my lovely fiancee, whose beauty naturally drew everyone’s attention despite her shy nature.
She also seemed to have been pulled aside by a group of lively ladies who looked to be around her age. I couldn’t quite put my finger on who they were, but I think that they were partners of the old geezers’ sons. Girlfriends and fiancees, I believe…
I shrugged off the thought, not caring too much about who they were, and redirected my focus back onto Jane. She looked breathtaking in her lavender-colored dress that flowed perfectly down to her feet. The way her bare shoulders shone under the lights, just begging to be kissed.
My eyes drifted down her figure, noting Liam’s little figure just to her right. He was holding on to his mother by pinching a snippet of her dress between his fingers. Honestly just too adorable of a sight, how her little one being protective over his mother who was more than 3 times his age.
I glanced back at Jane when I noticed her shifting ever so slightly from side to side. It wasn’t too noticeable unless one was staring at her as intently as I did.
Was she not feeling well?
Her back was turned toward me so that I couldn’t see her facial expression, but I noticed that Jane seemed a bit taller than normal today. Were her heels bothering her? Maybe I should-
“Ah, Rafael! There you are!”
I pushed myself off the balcony railings and turned around in search of the owner of the voice, only to find half of the previous group remaining.
The old geezers must’ve taken off with my father to show him the aged liquor that they were bragging about earlier and left their sons with me. They surrounded me in a semi-circle, each nursing some sort of drink in their hands.
The one who probably called out to me was holding a glass out to me. He had a big grin on his face, but I could tell it was nothing of the friendly sort. “We were just discussing the whole fiasco involving the Sanchez, but I guess it wasn’t interesting enough for you to join in. I shouldn’t expect a busy man like your to fuss about such little things, though.”
I knew that the old geezers were making a commotion about the Sanchez case earlier, but I wasn’t all too concerned about it. They were worried about the rivaling company’s recent rapid increase in its growth rate, but Joseph had already helped me find information indicating that there was actually a dispute inside the company about this event.
Apparently, the current head wasn’t the one who led this charge and was actually trying to figure out where the outflow of money was coming from without ever suspecting that it was caused by his own heir.
It was his appointed successor who was going behind his back and immaturely buying up land in the dropping real estate market for building new factories. The heir thought that he could take over the company sooner if he could show rapid growth results without his father’s help, even though the company didn’t have the funds or the manpower to handle such a large project. It would only collapse from failure in due time.
When I didn’t respond, he continued and lowly snickered, “You’ve always been one with few words, but then again, I guess that’s how you always get the girls. They like the brooding, silent type, right?”
The other guys chuckled lightly at his comment, but it was nothing that I wasn’t already used to. I never knew why but the sons of the other families always seemed to like to single me out.
I graciously accepted the glass, nodding my head politely in thanks. “I’m not sure if they do, but I’ll keep it in mind for the future.”
His jaw clenched from my lacking response. It was obvious that he was trying to provoke me to lash out uncordially.
He threw his hands up and covered his discontent with a boisterous laugh and taunting comment, “Thank you for your graciousness. To think that I may be of some help to the great son of the Cordova family.” He walked over next to me and leaned against the railing, looking over the crowd, “But then again, I doubt you would actually need my advice after capturing such a lovely little one already.”
I stayed silent, unsure of where he was heading with this.
His eyes were resting directly on the group of girls surrounding Jane, but they had a shimmer that I did not like when his eyes drifted along Jane’s figure, eyeing her like a piece of meat.
Swirling the wine in the glass, he continued, “You know, most of us were stuck with arranged marriages with a bunch of worthless chicks to strengthen our positions, but you were lucky enough to pick your own. She must be really good in bed for you to take her in even though she already has a bastard child…”
I clenched my jaw, trying to restrain myself from punching this kid for saying such things about Jane and Liam. My fingers tightened around the thin stem of the wine glass as I tightly gritted out, “That is not something I would discuss with people outside our relationships. We prefer to keep private things private.”
He rolled his eyes and mischievously chimed, “Come on, man. Loosen up. I bet she looks delectable, pinned helplessly to bed and-”
The wine glass snapped under my fingers before he could even finish his sentence. Everyone around us immediately took a step back. I rarely, if ever, lost my cool, but it was obvious that my patience had finally snapped, just like glass.
His eyes widened as the red liquid splattered on the ground between us. “R-Rafael, t-there’s no need to get so u-upset. I w-was just j-joking around like h-how g-guys normally-”
I tossed the remnants of the glass aside and roughly grabbed him by the collar before he could finish his pathetic lie of an excuse. Lifting the shorter man up to my height, leaving his toes hanging a few inches off the ground, I replied lowly, “Do you really think I give a flying fuck for whatever comes out of that filthy mouth of yours?” Fear flashed through his eyes as I tightened my grip. “Now, I think I’ve been quite patient with you for these past couple of decades, allowing you to make your snide remarks at me, but I don’t have any tolerance for anyone who disrespects my woman.”
His body was instinctively trembling under my gaze, but his brain was still stupid enough to plaster a cocky grin on his face and open his mouth again. “I-I always knew that there was a monster h-hidden under that polite facade of y-yours.” He placed his hands around my wrist, struggling to break free of my grasp as he haughtily called out to the others with that stupid pride of his, “Look, everyone! It’s just how I told you. The infamous Rafael Achilles Cordova is no different from the rest of us.”
But no one paid any attention to his words. Rather they were slowly inching further and further away from us, probably not wanting to get caught up in any bigger a mess than they already were in.
I smirked when the idiot’s face paled, realizing that no one was going to step in to help.
Even though he was the eldest son of the second strongest family after the Cordova family, they were still several times lower than us in power and wealth. He really must be stupid to provoke me for such a worthless reason, giving into his pathetic insecurities about being compared to me rather than working on improving himself.
“Looks like no one wants to help you after all. Probably because they have at least a few more brain cells than you to know not to get on my bad side.”
Anger bloomed on his face as he continued to push against my grip on his collar in futile. Unable to break free, he snarled, “You always thought you were better than me, but I know that you’re nothing. Just look at the trash you pulled in. A bastard child and a whore of a-”
All it took was a fraction of a second before he was knocked down onto the ground, coughing up blood all over my new tiles. My fist swung at his face without a second thought when he brought up their names, calling him such revolting words.
A familiar throb pulsed against my knuckles, reminding me of the time I slugged the pest who dared to try to hurt my Jane in a dark alleyway. I chuckled darkly as I strode over to his crumpled-up form on the ground. Even though I had only punched him once, less than a few seconds ago, the left side of his face was already starting to swell up.
I kicked him in the stomach, rolling him over onto his back, and slammed the heel of my leather shoe onto his chest, feeling his ribs crack satisfyingly under my foot. Another mouthful of blood came sputtering out from the disgusting imbecile’s lips.
In his pathetic struggle, he managed to wheeze out, “G-Get your disgusting foot-”
The other boys winced as I dug my heel even deeper into his chest. Another sputter of blood flew out of his mouth, effectively cutting his worthless words.
I smirked as I lifted him up by the hair, reveling in the look of pure fear in his eyes. He was barely recognizable with all the blood covering his torn outfit.
How dare this worthless man insult my queen? He ought to be groveling at her feet.
Right as I was about to hit him again, Liam’s voice suddenly rang out above the loud murmurs crowd below us. It didn’t sound like a cry but as if he was shouting at someone instead.
I tossed the imbecile’s rag doll-like remnants of his body aside, not caring for the loud cracking sound as his body hit the wall. I walked over to the edge of the balcony and peered down into the crowd to find Liam standing protectively in front of his mother, shouting at some woman in front of them.
I couldn’t quite make out his words over the whispering voices of the on-looking crowd surrounding them, but at least my two angels seemed to be unharmed at the moment.
Wanting to finish my business up here as soon as possible, I swiftly turned back around and stalked toward the crumpled body lying helplessly against the wall. All the other men were so petrified by the scene that they immediately parted for me, granting me full access to his ruined body.
I squatted down to his ragged body and grabbed a handful of his hair, roughly lifting his head up to look at me. “You should thank my fiancee that I need to cut our session short today. Otherwise, I would’ve made sure to break all your bones to the point you would’ve had to stay in bed for at least a month as a reminder of what happens when you insult my woman.” I lifted his head higher, arching his neck to a dangerous degree and eliciting a pained moan from the pile of filth. “I hope you understand where you stand from now on. I will no longer have any tolerance for you. And when your father asks why his company will no longer be receiving half of its funding from me anymore, be sure to tell him that it was all your fault.”
His eyes gazed up at me in a daze, seemingly barely able to stay coherent, but I couldn’t bring myself to care about it.
I dropped his head with a thud and straightened myself back up. I plucked my bloodied gloves off of my fingers one at a time and tossed them aside to one of my guards that was standing at the doorway. Glancing back at the other boys who thought it would be a good idea to follow that imbecile to go against me, I warned, “I trust that you know what will happen to you if you ever speak of today’s events outside of this room.”
They all immediately lowered their heads and nodded.
Straightening my suit, I left the room without another word and went in search of the stairs as quickly as possible. Several minutes had passed since I first heard him, and I could still hear Liam’s faint voice over the crowd.
I had just finished teaching a lesson to a bunch of spineless fools upstairs, and now I had to show the rest of the idiots downstairs how thin my patience had grown.
How dare a bunch of flies tries to insult my woman.
She was a queen who ought to stand far beyond the likes of them. They would be lucky to just to kiss her feet, and I plan to make sure everyone knew just that by the end of tonight.