I Left Him after He Chose The Sister-in-law

Clementine Stephens pulled an all-nighter gaming with Liberty Marshall before they finally headed back to their shared apartment, ready to keep the marathon going. After her shower, she stepped out just as Liberty headed in—then the doorbell rang.\n\nFiguring it was the set of pajamas Liberty ordered online, Clementine didn’t think twice about it and opened the door. She froze, completely caught off guard by who was standing there.\n\nThree men filled the doorway, with Leonidas Lopez at the front, leaning lazily against the doorframe. His gaze locked straight on Clementine, who was only wearing a fluffy bathrobe, her hair twisted up in a towel, the smooth skin of her neck bare to his eyes.\n\n“This drunk mess is your problem now,” Barrett Lee said, shoving Leonidas hard forward.\n\nOff-balance, Leonidas stumbled right into Clementine. She didn’t have time to step out of the way, and ended up catching him full in her arms. A sharp wave of alcohol mixed with that familiar cedar scent rolled off him, and she inhaled before she could stop herself.\n\n“What are you doing here?” Liberty stepped out, her voice sharp with disapproval that landed straight on Clementine. “Clem, have a little self-respect, would you?”\n\nBewildered, Clementine pushed Leonidas away. “What did I even do?”\n\nLiberty snapped right back: “Why were you sniffing him?”\n\n“I was breathing! Can’t I breathe? If I didn’t I’d be dead, right? I was just breathing normally,” Clementine shot back.\n\n“Not inhaling this guy’s scent you weren’t,” Liberty declared. But her protest got cut off when Uriel Scott clamped a hand over her mouth and dragged her back out the door, Barrett politely clicking it shut behind them.\n\nNow with nothing to lean on but the entryway wall, Leonidas frowned at her. “Do I really annoy you that much?”\n\n“Yeah, you do. Now please leave,” Clementine said flatly, turning for her bedroom. If she could just lock herself in there, whatever stubborn stunt he pulled wouldn’t be her problem. Stubborn as Leonidas was, he couldn’t bug her behind a closed door.\n\nBut he caught her wrist and tugged her right back into his chest. “I want the shirt.”\n\n“What shirt?”\n\n“The one you gave Mckenna.”\n\n“Tell Samara to buy you one,” Clementine retorted, yanking her phone out of her pocket. “And tell her to come get you.”\n\nLeonidas’s eyelids flickered, and he plucked the phone right out of her hand. “If you don’t like her, I’ll stop seeing her so much.”\n\n“Don’t bother,” Clementine said, smirking sharp. “Go see her, sleep with her—none of my business. Just be careful the first three months. That baby’s still fragile. Wouldn’t want to lose your brother’s only kid, would you? That’d leave you without even this lousy excuse to cling to me.”\n\n“Clementine!” Leonidas’s eyes burned red with raw emotion. “What do you even think I am to you?”\n\nClementine tilted her head, cool as anything. “I think you’re a portable space heater, a detail-obsessed gentleman, and a therapeutic power bank.”\n\nSilence thickened the air; tension always hung over them like a storm cloud. But the quiet got shattered by a voice blaring from the phone Leonidas was still holding.\n\n“Leonidas, are you fighting with your wife again?”\n\nIt was Samara Woods, on the line he’d stolen.\n\n“Everything’s fine,” Leonidas mumbled, already moving to end the call.\n\nSamara’s voice kept going, sweet as saccharine: “Your wife’s young, you should be more accommodating to her.”\n\nClementine scoffed. That line was too perfect, too smooth—implied she was young, unreasonable, always starting drama over nothing. It wasn’t the first time, either. Samara always got to be the calm, rational one, while Clementine got painted as petty and hot-headed. She used to bite her tongue to keep the peace, but she didn’t have any patience left for it now. “You’re so right, you’re absolutely right—total saint, aren’t you…”\n\nBefore she could spit out the rest of her cutting words, Leonidas leaned down and captured her lips in a brutal kiss, thumb mashing the end call button at the same time.\n\nHis kiss was intense, tangled up equal parts punishment and wild, unbridled emotion. One of his hands curved soft against her back, like he was trying to soothe the very anger he’d stoked.\n\nClementine’s eyes fluttered shut. What was she doing?\n\nThe stupid illusion that he loved her wrapped around her again, just like it always did. For years, she’d tortured herself with this back and forth—convincing herself he cared, then tearing that belief apart, driving herself almost crazy with it.\n\nShe pushed at his chest, but he didn’t move an inch.\n\n“Leonidas!” she cried, frustrated and desperate.\n\nFinally he let up, his breath coming ragged and fast. But the girl in front of him, her chest heaving with anger, held no warmth for him—only sharp irritation.\n\nHow could this be? Hadn’t she always been captivated by him?\n\nClementine wrenched free and darted for her bedroom, moving like she was running from the plague. It left Leonidas, always so cool and in control, defeated for the very first time.\n\nHe yelled after her, “Did I lose my physique? Am I out of shape? What is it you don’t like?”\n\n“Get out!”\n\nIn the hush of the night, Clementine fell asleep and dreamed.\n\nTwo years ago, the Stephens family was on the edge of bankruptcy. Her father Desmond had brought her to the Lopez mansion, calling in the life-saving debt Leonidas’s grandfather owed their family, begging for the old marriage contract to be honored.\n\nLeonidas’s face that day had been cold as a winter gale, his icy demeanor enough to freeze anyone mid-step. Clementine clutched the hem of her dress, nervous out of her mind—terrified of both his rejection and his acceptance.\n\nMarried life wasn’t as terrible as she’d feared. Even though he was distant and indifferent, he never cut her off from anything she needed materially. She told herself if they just kept living together, eventually he’d fall for her.\n\nBut the scene shifted. She was following Leonidas into a grand ballroom. Under the dazzling chandeliers, her heart ached at the sight of her brother-in-law’s blood pooling across the marble floor. Leonidas knelt at his brother’s side, straining to catch his last words.\n\nSuddenly, from the cluster of waiting waiters, someone lunged forward, a knife aimed straight for Leonidas’s unprotected back. Without thinking, Clementine stepped in front of him.\n\nLuckily, police got there in time to disarm the attacker. But the man hated her for ruining his plan, and as they dragged him away, he kicked her hard in the stomach.\n\nAlmost at the exact same time, Leonidas’s brother drew his last breath, and Samara fainted from shock. Leonidas let go of Clementine instantly and rushed Samara out, not even glancing Clementine’s way.\n\nWhen the ambulance pulled up, the police tried to help the doubled-over Clementine into it, but Leonidas’s cold words stopped them: “She doesn’t need it.”\n\nConfused, the police eventually got Clementine to the hospital anyway, but the doctor said it was too late.\n\n“Clem, you’re having a nightmare. Wake up…” Leonidas sat on the edge of her bed, brushing the tears off her cheeks. They just kept coming, endless.\n\nSlowly, Clementine opened her eyes.\n\nLeonidas kissed the tears as they spilled from the corners of her eyes. “What were you dreaming about? Tell me.”