Chapter 3 - The Woman You Hit
She looked at the staff.
At the camera.
At Amara.
Then back at Dex.
“Are you really going to humiliate me over a housekeeper?”
Amara’s face tightened, but she did not move.
Dex’s voice dropped.
“No. I’m going to hold you accountable for assaulting my mother.”
Jade laughed, brittle and panicked.
“Assault? Dex, she’s dramatic. Your mother has been manipulating you for months. She hates me.”
Dr. Briggs’s hands tightened around the wheelchair armrests.
Dex crouched beside her.
“Mom.”
Her eyes closed for a moment.
“I told you not to bring her here alone.”
He looked down.
“I know.”
“I told you she was cruel when you left the room.”
“I know.”
“No,” Dr. Briggs said, opening her eyes. “You suspected. There is a difference.”
Dex flinched.
Amara saw it.
So did Jade.
Jade seized the opening.
“This is what she does. She makes you feel guilty. She wants you all to herself.”
Dex stood slowly.
His voice stayed calm.
“My mother raised three children while finishing medical school. She ran a clinic in Fifth Ward for thirty years. She buried my father, survived a stroke, relearned how to speak clearly, and still remembers the name of every nurse who helped her recover.”
He stepped closer to Jade.
“She does not need to compete with you.”
Jade went pale.
Amara stayed where she was, one hand resting lightly on the wheelchair handle.
Dr. Briggs reached back and gripped Amara’s fingers.
That small touch nearly undid her.
Because Amara had not planned to be brave.
She had planned to finish her shift.
Send money to her younger brother.
Pick up groceries.
Call her mother.
Sleep five hours.
Come back.
That was the life she knew.
Quiet sacrifice.
Careful work.
Rooms where rich people forgot her name but remembered if a glass smudged.
She never expected to become the line between a billionaire’s girlfriend and the woman who gave birth to him.
But some lines choose you.
And when they do, you stand.
Building security arrived within minutes.
Two guards entered, not rushing, not dramatic, just present and alert.
Dex handed the phone to the security supervisor.
“Preserve the full library footage, hallway footage, and entry logs.”
Jade’s face sharpened.
“Dex.”
He ignored her.
“Disable Ms. Warren’s penthouse access. Escort her to the guest suite to collect her belongings under supervision.”
Jade’s mouth opened.
The staff in the hallway went still.
For the first time, the name came out.
Jade Warren.
Not future Mrs. Briggs.
Not Dex’s partner.
Not the woman who had spent six months choosing marble samples for a penthouse she did not own.
Just Jade Warren.
A guest whose access could be removed.
“You can’t throw me out,” she said.
Dex looked at his mother again.
“Yes,” he said. “I can.”
Jade stepped toward him, lowering her voice into the intimate tone she used when she wanted to pull him away from witnesses.
“Dex, don’t do this in front of the staff.”
Amara almost smiled.
That was always the shame, wasn’t it?
Not the slap.
Not the cruelty.
The audience.
Dex did not move closer.
“You did it in front of the staff.”
Jade’s eyes filled with rage.
“You’re choosing them over me?”
May you like
Dex answered without hesitation.
“I am choosing the woman you hit.”
