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A punch caught him in the gut, just below the diaphragm, causing him momentary weakness. He tried to continue fighting, but two more men entered the room and held him. He was made to sit in a chair while they bound him around his torso with rope.
“If you touch her, I’ll kill you!” Braeden directed at his grandfather. “How could you do this?”
Richard wheeled his chair close, his hand coming up to caress Braeden’s hair. “I won’t hurt her, I told you so. And I would never hurt you.”
“You call dangling a rope around my wife’s neck not hurting her?”
Richard beckoned to one of the men. “Remove the rope.” He then turned back to his grandson. “That was just for cinematic effect only. You think I’d do something like that?”
“Why? Why do you do these things?” Braeden’s voice cracked. “I’m your grandson for Christ’s sake!”
“It’s simple, she told me that if I handed my estate to you, she’d disappear out of your life for good,” the old man replied. “But I thought that if she disappears without you knowing about it, you might be hurt – heart broken, that sort of thing. So I wanted to give you the chance to choose. Prove your love if you must.”
Braeden’s face scrunched in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Time to choose,” Richard replied rather nonchalantly. “My assets or your wife.”
“What?” Braeden could not believe what his own flesh and blood was asking him to do. “You want me to choose between my own birthright and the woman I’m married to?”
“Yes.”