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Having Alan Marshall around wasn't pleasant. At least not to me. Alan had been my biggest rival ever since our college. He competed with me in everything, be it academics, activities, business or girls.

I never let his childish acts affect me but he did have his ways to get on my nerves. Just like the way he eyed Crystal today. My hands itched to plug out his eyeballs.

Bastard.

I brought him away from her as she too was clearly uncomfortable. My friends were really glad to meet her. It didn't take long for her to get comfortable with them.

I felt the need to go to the restroom and before leaving, I glanced at Crystal. She turned her head away as our eyes met. I made my way to the restroom and on the way back, I checked my phone to see a couple of missed calls from Aunt Margaret. When I called her back, it was engaged.

It was already 10 and I decided we should leave. My eyes landed on Anna, who was near the drink counter, but Crystal was nowhere in sight. I looked around and to my dismay, Alan too was gone.

I walked towards the group of women and spoke. "Excuse me, ladies." I looked at Anna. "Where is Crystal?"

"She had a call to attend, so she went into the yard." She replied. I nodded and told her and Tyler that I was leaving. They insisted on walking me out so that they could bid goodbyes to Crystal.

As I came to the yard and looked around, it was stranded. I frowned and took my phone out to call Crystal but stopped when I heard muffled voices coming from a corner.

Suspiciously, I went closer to the source of that voice and the scene in front of me made my blood boil.

Alan, that fucker was forcing himself on my wife. I marched furiously towards him and yanked him away from her with all my force. Without thinking of anything else, I turned him around only to punch him hard in the face. "HOW DARE YOU LAY YOUR HANDS ON HER!?" I yelled.

The sudden force made him fall on the ground. I hovered over him and beat him senseless. "I will kill you!"

Soon his struggles stopped and he passed out. Blood and bruises covered his face but I didn't stop. I was blinded by rage and did not care about how bad my own knuckles were hurting.

I was stopped by Tyler from nearly killing him. "Stop Adrien! You will kill him." He pushed me away with all his force.

I rubbed my hand on my face as the burning rage inside me refused to cool down.

My eyes fell on Crystal who was crouched in a corner across the wall. Her body shook as she wrapped her arms tightly around herself. My heart ached listening to her sobs.

Anna tried to comfort her but she flinched at her touch. I sat down in front of her and held her arms but she yanked it away.

"Crystal." My voice was barely a whisper. She tried to move away from me, hating anybody's touch. Her cries grew louder and she fisted her hair.

"Crystal. It's me." I wanted to comfort her. To tell her that she was that I was here and now she was safe.

"It's me, Adrien." She stopped moving. Her head slowly rose and her teary eyes met my blood shot ones.

I was taken aback when she threw her arms around my neck and hugged me tightly. I carefully wrapped my arms around her and caressed her hair and back while she cried hard on my shoulder.

"It's okay. I'm here." I whispered to her. Her heart hammered against her chest, matching mine. Her cries slowly fainted and soon, she stilled in my arms.

She had fallen unconscious. I pulled her away slowly and Anna laid her on her shoulder.

I noticed her torn clothes and faint red marks on her neck and shoulder. There were deep scratches on her left arms and I clenched my fist to control my anger.

I got myself out of my jacket and placed it around her. Gently picking her up in my arms, I made my way to the parking lot. Tyler and Anna followed me, their faces showing concern.

Tyler opened the car door for me and carefully placed Crystal on the seat. I closed the door and turned to him.

"That bastard-" Tyler interrupted. "Don't worry. I'll handle him." He assured me while patting my shoulder and I nodded. Sitting in the car, I drove away.

The entire ride, I had rage and guilt bubbling inside of me. My grip on the steering wheel tightened to the point where the blood on my knuckles was clogged.

Reaching the penthouse, I carefully rang the doorbell with Crystal in my arms. A minute later, Aunt Margaret opened the door and gasped on seeing Crystal.

"What happened?" She yelled in horror. Crystal's face and bruises were hidden with my jacket and her hair.

"She drank a bit too much and passed out." I lied. I didn't want her to worry too much. Or maybe I was ashamed to tell her that I failed to keep my wife safe.

She let us in, her face still held the concern. Thankfully, she did not notice my knuckles. Asking her to not worry, I went to our bedroom and laid Crystal down on the bed. Sliding her feet out of her sandals, I sat beside her.

I wanted to call a doctor just in case, but decided to wait. She needed some time. Her face was stained with tears that smudged her makeup. I brought a few wet napkins and wiped her face gently to get rid of it. The teeth marks and scratches on her arm and neck looked painful so I applied some ointment over them.

The events kept running in my mind. I felt a heavy burden on my shoulders. My rivalry got her into trouble. The guilt was eating me inside.

I put a blanket over Crystal and went to the bathroom to take a shower. I came out in more comfortable clothes and saw Crystal still unconscious. I sat down on the floor beside the bed and held her hand. Pressing a kiss on the back of it, I put my head on the bed and closed my eyes.

When I opened my eyes, the bed was empty. I looked at the clock and it was past midnight. I had fallen asleep. I checked the bathroom and the closet for Crystal but she wasn't there. Worry took over me as I didn't find her in the living room and kitchen either. I was about to check the main door but stopped when I saw the glass door of the balcony open.

There she was, sitting on the couch, while hugging her knees and staring at the dark sky. She had already changed her clothes. I went closer and sat next to her. She flinched when my arm touched hers.

"It's me." I said as softly as possible."Are you okay?" I asked.

Of Course she is not, Idiot!

But she nodded her head anyway.

"Why did you come here in the middle of the night? It's cold." I asked.

"I wanted to get some air." Her voice was hoarse and cracked. She had cried a lot.

"I am sorry, Crystal." I said, making her look at me. "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that. I should have been there with you, by your side and I wasn't. I didn't think that my rivalry would cost you so much." I blurted out everything that I had in my heart.

She looked at her feet. "It wasn't your fault, Adrien." She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "In fact, you were the one who saved me." Her voice was barely a whisper. I saw a lone tear fall down from her eyes.

Without thinking twice, I held her shoulders and pulled her in my embrace. She stilled for a second then wrapped her hands around my torso and I gently caressed her hair.

"I won't let anyone hurt you. Ever again." I murmured in her ear. She fisted my shirt at my back and nuzzled her face closer to my neck. I hadn't made that promise just to her but to myself. If someone ever tries to lay a finger on her, I would tear him limb by limb.

I'd be goddamned if I didn't make Alan Marshall watch his life shatter in front of his own eyes.

"Come on, now." I pulled away. "Let's go inside. It's freezing here." I lent her my hand and made her stand up as we walked back to the bedroom. I took a pillow and an extra blanket to sleep on the couch. Before I could climb the couch, I heard Crystal call me.

"Adrien." I looked back at her. "Thank you." She said looking into my eyes. The next thing I knew, I stood close in front of her. My hands cupped her face and I softly placed my lips on her forehead.

She looked at me with surprise and I smiled. "Get some rest." Before I could go farther, she held my hand.

"Ca-can you please s-sleep on the bed?" She asked nervously.

"It's your turn to take th-" Before I could complete, she said. "With me." Her eyes pleaded to me and I didn't mind agreeing to it. "Sure."

I put back the pillows on the bed and we both climbed up on it. Crystal turned towards me and whispered. "Good Night."

I smiled. "Good Night." My eyelids started to feel heavy as soon as I turned the bed lamps off but I resisted the urge to sleep. I wanted to wait till Crystal had slept. Few minutes later, when her breath had calmed down, I peeked at her to see her soundly sleeping. Satisfied, I let the exhaustion push me in a deep slumber.

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'Adrien Russell to officially take over his father's well-built business empire at the start of the following month.'

The article made a huge smile grace my face. I was happy for him. He had worked very hard and made himself capable of running his father's business.

"What are you smiling at?" I heard Aunt Margaret say. I looked at her and smiled. "The article about Adrien."

I showed it to her on my phone. She smiled widely upon seeing it. "I am so proud of him." Her eyes glistened with happiness. "He's worked hard for this. He always wanted to do something that made his father proud. Look at him today, he is a brilliant son, a brilliant friend.."

a brilliant husband..

"..anyone could ever have. And I'm sure he'll be a brilliant businessman too."

The very next moment, we heard the door click and a very tired Adrien walked in. He gave a small smile looking at us. Aunt Margaret walked towards him and hugged him.

"Congratulations. I am so proud of you." She patted his back.

"Thank you so much." He glanced back at me while still hugging her.

"Congrats." I mouthed.

"Thank you." He mouthed back and pulled away from Aunt.

"We need to celebrate. When are your parents coming back?" Aunt asked.

"Um.. they said, the day after tomorrow." Adrien answered.

"You are officially starting in three day and they are coming the day after tomorrow?" Aunt frowned and shook her head and we chuckled.

"Now, come on. Get freshed and come to have your dinner. Crystal and I have already eaten." Aunt said but Adrien declined saying he wasn't hungry.

Soon, we went back to our respective rooms. Adrien didn't take long to freshen up and had already started working on his laptop on the couch while I sat on the bed, reading a book.

"Just make sure that nothing goes wrong, Ryan. You know how important this is to me." He spoke on the phone.

"Ms. Jones! Where are the documents I asked you for? Are you even taking things seriously? How can you be so irresponsible!!"

He yelled over the phone. Nth time in the past hour.

Work stress could get the worst out of him.

I put my book aside and waited for him to end the call. When he did, I got up from the bed and asked him.

"Do you want some coffee?"

"Yeah. Thanks." He said without averting his eyes from the damned laptop screen.

I quickly made two cups of coffee and went back to the room. Raising the cup towards him, I sipped onto mine. Without looking at it, Adrien stretched his hand to take the cup but instead, he ended up dipping his finger in the hot coffee.

"Ow!!" He hissed while rapidly shaking his hand and I looked at him blankly.

"So now you don't even have time to look where your hand is going." I deadpanned.

"Sorry." He gave an awkward smile and took the cup from my hand. I was about to go back to the bed but before I could, Adrien held my wrist making me face him.

"Sit with me." I sat beside him on the couch and watched him rubbing his eyes and sighing heavily.

"You look tired. Take a break." I suggested.

"I can't. There's too much work and pressure." He said, exhaustion evident in his voice.

"You are the one pressuring yourself. And not just yourself but also the employees." I said.

"I didn't do such a thing." He defended himself and I arched my eyebrow

"Oh really? I lost count of the number of times you yelled at people on the call." I said and he sighed again.

There was utter silence for a few minutes and we just enjoyed our coffee.

"It's not easy at all, Crystal. You know, being the heir of the company, people think I was born with a silver spoon. That I am privileged and I didn't have to do any hard work to become the CEO. They don't know about the efforts I have put into becoming capable enough to handle the business. And I want to prove myself. Prove that I am worthy enough to take over the empire." He looked blankly at his coffee while I kept my eyes on him.

Before I knew it, my hand reached to touch his shoulder and pressed it lightly. "The world will always have something to say, Adrien. And this isn't the first time you are facing it. There are always people who like to criticize someone no matter how hard they try. But that's how you improve. Your employees, your colleagues, your family has seen the efforts you put in your work and they are all proud of you. Do it for them. Do it for yourself. For your satisfaction and not for the good-for-nothing people around you who talk crap without knowing anything." He looked at me with a small amusing smile. I could be a motivator.

"You're really good with words, aren't you?" He took my hand from his shoulder and held it between his both palms. He gently tugged and pulled me closer to himself and pressed a kiss on my forehead.

God! I can never get used to this.

The butterflies I never knew I had in my stomach, erupt altogether as I feel his soft lips on my skin.

He pulled back and I watched him. His eyes started to drop slowly but he tried to push it away. "Maybe I should take a break and call it a day." He looked back at me and I nodded.

It was my turn to sleep on the bed so I walked towards it and he set everything to sleep. We turned off the lights after laying down. I couldn't sleep immediately so I stared at the crescent moon outside the window.

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