Too Late for Regret (Annalise and Roger) novel Chapter 164

Seth’s POV

I would have rushed in, but Charlie and my father held me back. I knew what they were doing. Charlie held a finger in front of his mouth to tell me to be quiet, but that was hard to do. I know that they wanted the women who tried to hurt Laney to admit what they had done. I calmed down just a little when Ana mentioned that she was pregnant again. I realized that he was just waiting for her to call out for him.

He would never let anything happen to her, and from the sound of it, Laney was safe. My mother was furious, and Dominique and Katherine needed to think before they continued, but they didn’t. The gall it took for Dominique to confront Laney at our wedding was unbelievable. I looked at Dad, and he nodded. He was already on his phone with his assistant, getting the ball rolling. I heard my mother tell them what was about to happen to their parents‘ companies, and she was dead serious. I relaxed, and they let go of me.

Rita slipped through the group and stood next to Charlie, in front of the door. I already knew that Charlie would go to Ana; she was still standing near the door. I felt better knowing that Rita would protect both my mother and Laney. If she weren’t assigned to Ana, I would try to poach her to protect Laney. I’m sure this wouldn’t be the only time things got ugly because other women were jealous. They never did it in front of me, and clearly, tonight was the same.

I am disgusted by their words. I never went out with Doninique. I went out with Katherine once, and it was the longest two and a half hours of my life. She wanted to talk about her clothes and shoes. I had to sit there and be polite as she talked about the sales staff being ignorant. I highly doubted that. It wasn’t Ana’s shop Katherine had been talking about, but she wasn’t the woman she portrayed herself to be. She didn’t have a kind word to say about anyone the whole date.

She hated that I dropped her off after dinner. She wanted to go to a bar for drinks or to a movie, but I shot down every suggestion. Citing that I had to go in early for meetings. She tried everything to get me to walk her up to her apartment, but I didn’t want to be around her a minute longer. I dropped her off at the front of her building. I watched as she passed security and entered the elevator before I left, clearly unhappy.

But as materialistic as she was, I never thought she would end up being this cruel to Laney. I thought that now I was off the market, they would all accept it and move on. I’m not going to let either of them get away with this. When my mother mentioned that they had brought their bodyguards in there with them, that said all I needed to know.

They would have instructed them to do the assault, thinking it kept their hands clean. It wouldn’t absolve them because their bodyguards are paid to follow orders. They would still be the ones at fault. I was getting impatient. I wanted to go in and put a stop to this farce. Ana knew we were out here he wanted to finish this up, as she knew what they intended to do.

“Do you think that my parents, who have thrived in the business community, will be taken down by two women who can’t do anything on their own? You had to come with security to carry out your wishes. Do you think that anyone is going to fall for it? Our word against yours, it’s almost laughable. People are smarter than you think. No one is going to think that your parents‘ companies were bankrupted for nothing. Do you think that Seth and I would just stand by and let you target our parents? The story will come out, you won’t be able to stop it,” Ana said before laughing at them. She was right, they really hadn’t thought any of it out.

“We have friends who will stand behind us. You have nothing, as long as we don’t admit to anything,” Dominique replied mockingly. She really believed it, too.

“We’re going to leave, but you need to take our advice, scaredy cat. You might have missed us this time, but we’ll be seeing you,” Katherine added.

“Did you just tell her that you were going to come after her again? Are you insane? How is that going to work? You’re about to swear to your parents that you did nothing wrong, and then come after her again? I can promise you that none of you will be getting anywhere near her. I can also promise you that your bodyguards won’t ever be able to get their hands on her. I would swear my life on it. You two are pathetic. We won’t be standing by and just letting you do whatever you want. Charlie will make sure Laney stays safe. His security teams are the best in the city,” Ana replied.

“We’ll just have to bring more people with us the next time, then, don’t we? You need to move out of our way, Ana. We’re done here, so step aside. Just know if you or your family hurt our families, you’re all fair game to us,” Dominique stated.

The stall door slammed open, and Laney stepped out. She was furious and ground out, “Did you just threaten my family?”

“Oh, so the mouse finally comes out just when we’re about to leave,” Katherine scoffed.

“Who said you were leaving? You’re not going to threaten either of them and then just walk away. Apologize, now, to them both,” Laney told them.

“Or what? What do you think you can do to us?” Dominique asked, clearly amused. “There are four of us, and three of you. I like our odds. One of you is useless, one of you is old, and the other is pregnant. It really doesn’t seem like you can make any of us apologize if we don’t want to, and I assure you that we don’t. But I don’t mind giving you another memory for your special day.”

My heart was beating almost out of my chest. I know that she is about to sic her bodyguard on my wife, and I’m waiting for Ana to call out. I wanted to bust in right then, and was glad to see the door open sligh, and Rita just slipped through unnoticed. I know that they are all focused on the back of the room, because Laney’s voice was further away than everyone else’s. The crowd around us outside the door has gotten bigger, and Micah and Andrew are here with us now.

But they don’t seem to be worried at all for her, which is surprising because I’m terrified that she is about to get hurt. I wish I hadn’t allowed half the people who came to come to our wedding. It was a show of respect to our partners, but clearly, some of them are lacking, and they raised their children the same way. I haven’t given either of them a moment’s thought since I went out the one time over five years ago. The only impression from that date was disappointment.

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