Nights Burn With Regret — by Nathan Perez 177
Chapter 177
Violet
The moment that voice rang out, the entire hall went deathly still.
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Before anyone could even react, before I could fully register what was happening, Matthew stepped forward. He moved past the stunned crowd, past Nora, and positioned himself squarely in front of me and Sebastian, his back to us as if he were shielding us from the room.
Nora’s face drained of color the instant she saw him, her face going pale. For the first time since this started, she looked genuinely panicked. She had been so absorbed in humiliating me, so focused on tearing me down in front of everyone, that she had forgotten herself, and the mask she always wore.
In front of people, especially in front of Matthew, Nora was always gentle, fragile, and kind to the point of saintly. The girl who wouldn’t hurt a fly. And now here she was, caught red-handed, trying to force another woman to kneel, her malice laid bare in front of Matthew.
Matthew turned to Nora, his expression dark, anger flickering openly in his eyes.
“Nora!” he said sharply, his voice cutting through the silence, “what the fuck do you think
you are doing?!”
“I-”
He didn’t wait for her to answer. “Who do you think you are to tell her to go down on her knees? Were you this kind of person all along?”
She opened her mouth, but no words came out.
Matthew’s jaw tightened, the muscle ticking visibly as his patience snapped.
“I asked you a question,” he said, his tone colder. “What is this bullshit, Nora? Who gave you the right to act this way?” His eyes bored into her. “Just because I treat you differently doesn’t mean you can cause a scene and tell my fiancée to go down on her knees.”
Fiancée.
A collective gasp rippled through the room at that word. Murmurs erupted instantly, whispers overlapping in confusion and disbelief.
“What is this?” someone hissed.
“Isn’t Nora his girlfriend?” another whispered back. “Why is he defending that woman instead of her?”
“Did you hear that?” a third voice said. “He called the other woman his fiancée.”
Eyes shifted toward me, then to Nora, then to Matthew again, as though they were watching an interesting movie unfold before them.
“Oh, I see now,” someone muttered. “That must be why she could enter without an invitation. If she’s
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Chapter 177
Matthew Sinclair’s woman, that explains everything.”
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“Then what is Nora doing?” another voice sneered. “Acting like she owns him? Is she out of her mind?”
The whispers grew louder, all turning against Nora in an instant. People who had just been nodding along with her moments ago now looked at her with disdain, as if she were an embarrassing mistake they wanted no association with..
I almost laughed as I watched Matthew stand there, defending me as though he still had the right.
Even now. Even after everything. He hadn’t changed at all. He was still delusional, still convinced we were something more than a memory he refused to let die. As if standing up for me in front of everyone could somehow undo the fact that I had ended things between us. He acted like a woman like me could never truly walk away from him.
I stared at his back and felt nothing but disgust. He still didn’t understand one simple truth, we were never going back to the past.
Nora swallowed hard, her throat bobbing as she shook her head desperately. She looked at Matthew as if he were her last lifeline, her eyes glassy, voice trembling. “M-Matthew, it’s not… it’s not what it looks like. I-”
She reached for him, fingers brushing his sleeve, but he didn’t let her touch him. Instead, he caught her wrist mid-motion, his grip firm.
“Don’t try to deny it,” he said coldly. “I know what I saw. I know what I heard.”
Nora’s face drained of what little color it had left. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.
Beside her, my aunt gasped, clearly panicking.
“M-Matthew, it’s not like that,” she said quickly, forcing a strained smile. “Nora didn’t mean any harm. She was just worried Violet might do something to embarrass the Sinclair family.”
Matthew’s gaze snapped to her.
“Embarrass?” he repeated, his voice dropping. “Do you think any of you have the right to care about what happens in the Sinclair family? Who do you think you are?”
The tone alone was enough to make my aunt freeze mid-breath. Beside her, Riley, who looked like she wished the floor would swallow her whole, instantly grabbed her mother’s arm, silently begging her to stop talking.
My aunt obeyed. She didn’t say another word.
Matthew turned back to Nora, and she flinched as if struck.
“It seems like you need a reality wake-up call,” he said flatly. “To me, you’re just a friend. A friend I care about.” His grip tightened for a brief second before he continued, each word slow. “But I love Violet. And no matter what you do, no matter what anyone does, that will never change.”
He leaned closer, towering over her. “So know your place. Is that clear?”
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Chapter 177
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Nora’s body shook violently. Tears welled up in her eyes as she nodded again and again. “Y-yes…”
Only then did Matthew release her wrist. She stumbled back a step, clutching her arm as if it hurt.
“From now on,” he said without looking at her, “keep your distance from me.”
Nora opened her mouth, clearly wanting to say something, but he had already turned away from her.
He faced me.
The anger in his eyes faded instantly, replaced with something softer, and tender as his gaze swept over me, taking in my appearance as if trying to reassure himself I was still there.
I met his eyes with a calm, emotionless gaze.
If anything, I was amused.
Watching it unfold felt oddly distant, like observing a carefully arranged play. I had expected this all along. I knew Nora would lose herself to anger, that she would reveal her true self to Matthew. I didn’t need to raise my voice or threaten anyone. That was the thing about power, you never had to do much at all. You simply waited. Sooner or later, people were always stupid enough to walk straight into the trap. All you had to do was
let them.
Nora had done exactly that. With her own hands, she had ruined herself.
She had shown Matthew the one thing she had spent so long trying to hide: the truth of who she was.
And now, it was no longer my concern.
I tightened my grip on Sebastian’s wheelchair and forced a smile, leaning down toward him. “Come on, let’s try the chocolate fountain next.”
Sebastian looked at me as if checking whether I was alright. Then he nodded once, trusting me without question. I was about to push the wheelchair forward when fingers suddenly closed around my wrist.
“Violet, wait.”
I paused.
A slow, tired sigh slipped past my lips. I didn’t even need to turn around to know who it was. I glanced down at his hand on mine, the familiarity of the gesture irritating me more than it should have, before finally lifting my gaze to his face.
“Get it off,” I said calmly.
Matthew shook his head, his grip not loosening. “Don’t leave. I’ve been trying to meet you. Just, let’s talk.”
I frowned, irritation flickering across his face. I tried to pull my hand back, but his grip tightened instead. Before I could react, Sebastian’s voice cut sharply through the air.
“Get your hands off my sister, bastard.”
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Chapter 177
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Matthew turned toward him, smiling as if this were some touching reunion. “I’m glad you’re okay, Sebastian,” he said warmly. “But I’m not trying to hurt your sister. I just want to talk to my woman.”
Sebastian’s hands clenched around the armrests of his wheelchair, his jaw tightening. “She is not your woman,” he snapped. “So get your dirty hands off her.”
I blinked, startled by Sebastian. He had never liked Matthew, that much I knew, but this was different. This wasn’t annoyance or jealousy. This was raw fury. It felt protective, and territorial. The kind that came from someone who had learned what it meant to lose everything once and refuse to let it happen again.
For a brief second, it felt like he was standing guard for someone else too. As if he couldn’t let anyone other than Hades touch me.
Matthew’s smile faded. His hand tightened around mine again. “It’ll only take a minute,” he said, his tone turning firm. “You owe me at least that.”
Owe him? This arrogant bastard. No one asked him to get involved.
He started to pull me toward him.
I was just about to shove him away, my patience finally snapping, when the air itself seemed to change. The temperature dropped. A deep, familiar, dangerously calm voice echoed through the hall, cutting through the noise like a blade.
“You must have a death wish,” the voice said slowly, “touching what belongs to me, kid.”
Every sound in the room died instantly.
“Get your hand off her, before I cut it off myself.”
My heart skipped violently. So did everyone else’s.
I turned.
Leaning casually against the wall, hands tucked into his pockets as if he weren’t moments away from tearing someone apart, stood the one man everyone in the country feared. He was dressed in a perfectly tailored black suit, his presence overwhelming, but beautiful in the most dangerous way possible. His expression was calm, but his eyes were dark and sharp, locked onto Matthew like a predator, eyes already locked on its prey, ready to strike the moment it moved.
I couldn’t stop the smile that spread across my face. Finally, he was back.
Hades Sinclair.
My husband.
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