Page 64 of Fallen Heir

A concussion. That made sense. The pain. The disorientation. The fragments of memory floating just out of reach.

There was so much I wanted to ask. So much I needed to understand. But the words stayed locked inside me, tangled up with everything I still couldn’t process.

And somehow… that was okay.

Because he was here.

Because Ben was here.

Because I was alive.

My body eased, inch by inch, as the pain dulled and the weight behind my eyes returned. I let it take me. I didn’t fight it. Not this time.

Because for the first time in a long time, it felt safe to sleep.

Chapter 22

Jaxson

I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight.

He’d nearly killed her.

That thought had been spinning in my head since the second the bathroom door slammed open. I’d been right outside the hallway—right there.Close enough to hear her laugh, close enough to protect her. But one interruption, one bullshit question about an upcoming merger, had distracted me for just long enough.

Long enough for everything to go to hell.

The moment I saw Ben sprint past me—silent, intense, locked in. He didn’t have to say a word. The second I saw the look on his face, the determination, I knew. My stomach dropped and instinct kicked in, sending me tearing down the hallway right behind him.

The picture still burned in my mind.

Alex had her pinned to the wall, hands locked around her throat like he owned her. Savannah’s eyes were wide and desperate, her body slack, legs giving out beneath her. I didn’t think. I didn’t breathe. I just moved.

My hands had wrapped around his throat, lifting him off the ground with one furious motion. His feet kicked against nothing, but he didn’t fight. Didn’t struggle. He just looked at me—with that sick, smug grin—and my grip squeezed tighter. I wanted his life to be over with my bare hand. I should’ve ended him right there.

Ben stepped in before I could. Calm. Controlled.Dangerous.

“Not here,” he said, voice low and steady, meant only for me. “Not like this.”

It was the only reason Alex walked out of that room alive.

Security took him away, but he didn’t look scared. No begging, no panic—just that same calculating smirk. Like he’dplayed the first card in a game that only he knew the rules to. Like this was all part of his plan.

And I believed him.

It wasn’t over. Not by a long shot.

But I had to shove it all down, because she needed me.

Savannah was barely conscious when we got to the hospital. Her skin had gone pale, lips dry, voice gone. I held her hand the entire way in, even when she didn’t hold mine back.

I kept my distance as the nurses cut her out of her dress, but the second I saw the bruises forming on her neck, I had to look away. I glanced back again, not wanting to miss anything that was happening. Anything that she was going through.

It wasmyfault she was going through this. I should’ve been there.

Then, I saw them.

The scars.