Forbidden: My Husband's Brother

How Long?

Reyna’s POV

My chest felt so tight, I thought I would choke on the air itself. The silence between us stretched long and heavy, broken only by the sound of my shaky breaths. Nicholas stood near the bed, his face hard as stone, but his eyes… his eyes were different now. Not the burning rage from moments ago, but something softer, searching.

He still held one of the photographs in his hand, the paper bent where his fist had crumpled it.

“I…” His voice came low, rough, as if the words scraped his throat. He dragged a hand down his face and let out a slow breath.

“Reyna, I shouldn’t have...” He stopped, biting the inside of his cheek like he hated what he was about to say. “I shouldn’t have come at you like that.”

I blinked at him, unsure if I had heard right. Nicholas Hall, proud and untouchable, was… apologizing?

My lips trembled. “You didn’t believe me,” I whispered, the words spilling out before I could stop them.

His eyes flicked up to me, sharp and wounded. “You have to understand, the pictures...”

“They were fake!” My voice cracked, and I clutched my stomach, as if holding my child would steady me. “You think I would do that to Jeremy? To you? To this family? After everything?”

He flinched, the hard lines of his jaw tightening. His hand loosened around the photograph until it dropped to the floor. For the first time since I met him, Nicholas looked unsure of himself.

His steps were slow as he came closer, each one making my heart beat faster. When he finally stood in front of me, I forced myself to look up, even though my eyes burned with unshed tears.

“I wanted to believe you,” he said quietly, his voice like gravel. “But I’ve seen too many lies, too many schemes. I didn’t know what was real anymore.”

My throat ached. I wanted to scream at him, hit him, beg him to trust me, yet all I managed was a whisper. “And now?”

For a long moment, he only stared at me. Then, to my shock, Nicholas lowered himself to his knees in front of me. His height still towered even like this, but the gesture itself... it stripped some of his power away. His gaze dropped to my belly before rising back to my face.

“Now…” He paused, his chest rising and falling like he was fighting himself. “Now I believe you.”

The tears I had been holding back spilled over. My hand flew to my mouth, muffling the sob that escaped me.

Nicholas didn’t reach out, didn’t touch me like I half-expected. He only looked at me with those stormy hazel eyes, the ones that made me feel seen and bare at the same time.

“I’ll find who’s behind this,” he said, his voice hardening again, like steel over fire. “They framed you once, and they’re trying again. But I won’t let them win. Not this time.”

I nodded through my tears, clutching my stomach with both hands.

“You don’t have to fight alone,” I said softly. “Jeremy wouldn’t want that. He… he wanted you to protect us. Both of us.”

Something flickered in Nicholas’s eyes... pain, maybe guilt, but he didn’t answer. He stood instead, his tall frame casting a long shadow across the room. His back straightened, his cold mask slipping back into place.

“You should rest,” he said, his tone clipped now, as though he had already given too much of himself away. “I’ll handle the rest.”

“Nicholas…” My voice broke, but when he looked back at me, the words I wanted to say... thank you, I need you, please don’t doubt me again... died on my lips.

He gave me a small nod, then turned and strode toward the door. His broad shoulders filled the frame for a moment before he disappeared, leaving only silence in his wake.

I sat frozen on the bed, the tears drying on my cheeks. Relief washed over me first, relief that he had believed me, that he hadn’t thrown me out, that he hadn’t taken everything from me in one cruel sweep. But then the darker thoughts crept in, pulling me down into a pit I couldn’t climb out of.

What if he hadn’t believed me? What if he had thrown me to the wolves, the way the rest of his family wanted? Would I still be here? Would my baby?

I shivered, wrapping my arms tighter around myself. The thought of being locked away again, of my child born into chains or worse, it made my stomach churn.

I looked down at the pictures scattered on the floor. My own face stared back at me, twisted into something I didn’t recognize. Whoever had made these… whoever had placed them in Nicholas’s hands… they wanted me destroyed.

“Jessica,” I whispered, her name sour on my tongue. She had always hated me. But could she have gone this far? Could she have staged something this vile, this calculated?

I pressed a hand to my forehead, trying to quiet the storm in my mind. It wasn’t just Jessica. She wasn’t smart enough to do this alone. Someone else was helping her, someone with power, someone who wanted Jeremy gone.

My chest grew heavy. Jeremy knew. He knew he was in danger, and he still walked into it. He left me with this child, with this secret, and now I had to survive long enough to bring his last wish into the world.

My gaze drifted toward the closed door Nicholas had walked through. For all his coldness, all his sharp edges, he had stood by me tonight. He had believed me when no one else would.

But for how long?

I leaned back on the pillows, my body weak with exhaustion, and shut my eyes. My fingers brushed my stomach, tracing gentle circles.

“I’ll protect you,” I whispered to my unborn child. “No matter what. I’ll protect you, even if the world thinks I’m a monster.”

My throat tightened, and I forced back another sob.

Because deep inside, I knew the truth.

The real monster wasn’t me.

It was the one hiding in this family or anywhere at all. The one who killed Jeremy. The one who was now coming after me and my baby.

And I didn’t know if Nicholas would still be on my side once the next storm hit.