Ellison And Joycelyn A Love Beyond The Rules

Chapter 13 Chapter

13

"Get your hands off me!" Joycelyn wrenched away from Cedric, her eyes arctic. "What's the play here? First, you try selling me to cover gambling debts, now straight-up extortion?"

She'd watched this pattern unfold for years-her stepfather's gambling her stepsister's endless cosmetic surgeries and designer shopping. She and her mother were nothing but walking ATMs, constantly filling their financial holes. Today's desperate grab suggested a deeper debt than usual.

Though caught out, Phineas puffed up with false authority. Tmill your father."

Joycelyn drew up a dining chair and surveyed the seven vultures on the sofa with clinical detachment. "Let's settle accounts, then

Phineas, feeling emboldened by the presence of his brother's family, including his two infamously troublemaking nephews, started putting on grand airs.

He said, "Eleven years room and board at about 18 thousand dollars annually makes 200 thousand dollars. Add 50 thousand for schooling. We'll round down to 240 thousand dollars, ignoring the small stuff. Pay up and we're done."

Phineas's face twisted with ugly determination as he named his price.

Joycelyn's laugh could have frosted glass. "Since when did you ever earn 18 thousand dollars in a year? What exactly have you contributed since marrying my mother? My high school was free, college was loans, and I worked for everything else The audacity of claiming credit"

Phineas's brother Lucian Mercer slammed the coffee table. "Without his charity, you'd have starved! And what about all these years of rent? The utilities we never charged you for? Yet here you are, putting on airs after he raised you for nothing

"Exactly," his wife Lyra Mercer sneered. "After a decade of generosity, and this is how you repay him? Got yourself a boyfriend now, have you? If you can't pay up, make him do it"

Thave no money," Joycelyn stated flatly.

Then sign an IOU and hand over your paychecks," Octavia drawed. "Your boyfriend can support you." Phineas chimed in with a darkening face, "Direct deposit to your sister's account."

"Keep dreaming," Joycelyn's attention was fixed on her mother's telling silence, "Mom? You support this extortion?"

"Sweetheart... we're just worried you're being taken advantage of Iris sputtered.

Arctic wind couldn't match the frost crystallizing in Joycelyn's bones. She'd never fallen for a stranger's

con, yet here was her own mother, luring her into a trap with manufactured concern.

"Since you agree with them, it's clear who you consider family new-the Mercers, not me. You've chosen

to stand by while they exploit me for money." Her grip tightened on her purse, her disappointed eyes reddening before hardening with ice. "As of now, I have no father-and no mother."

Her mother belonged to others now-someone else's wife, someone else's mother.

"You can't abandon me now that you're grown, Iris sobbed.

Joycelyn stared at her mother's tear-streaked face, refusing to let her heart soften this time. "Fine. You say I can't abandon

12:54 Mon, Feb 10 0

Chapter 13

you. If you're so miserable here, divorce him. I'll take care of you

"Our marriage is perfect. How dare you try to poison her against ne!" Phineas snapped.

"She's vicious, Mom. She's trying to destroy our family!" Octavia protested, her panic showing. She was

worried that no one would bankroll her lifestyle if both cash cows escaped.

"Since reason fails, I'm calling the police." Joycelyn reached for her phone.

Cedric snatched it away. "Nice iPhone. My phone is broken. I needed an upgrade"

"Give it back!" Joycelyn lunged forward.

Cedric brazenly pocketed her phone with a smirk. As she lunged for it, he caught her waist, using his superior strength to his advantage. He'd been eyeing Joycelyn for ages, and now he finally had an excuse to get his hands on her.

Joycelyn recoiled in disgust, shoving him hard enough to sprawl him across the floor, her eyes promising violence.

"Fuck!" He scrambled up as his mother Lyra marched to attack, emboldened by their numbers.

Pain exploded across Joycelyn's scalp as Lyra grabbed her hair. Meanwhile, Cedric rose, pawing at her waist. Trembling with fury, she drove her knee into his groin.

"Ouch! Grab her car keys! That junker's worth something!" Cedric shouted for help.

The Mercers moved to pin Joycelyn down while Iris just wrung her hands, watching helplessly from the sidelines. "Please stop! We're family,"

The room erupted into chaos.

Outside, hearing Joycelyn's struggles, Ellison kicked the flimsy door with such force it nearly came off its hinges.

Standing in the doorway, his eyes took in the scene before him. At the sight of Joycelyn's disheveled state, her hair being roughly yanked, his customary cold composure erupted into raw fury

"Let go of her!" Ellison strode forward with lethal grace, seizing Cedric's hand. His eyes fixed on the bruises blooming across Joycelyn's exposed waist, and his grip tightened mercilessly before he twisted with brutal force.

"Who gave you permission to touch what's mine?" he demanded, his voice icy cold.

Bones cracked beneath his grip as Cedric's screams filled the air Ellison kept one arm sheltering Joycelyn while the other maintained its merciless hold.

Lucian and Lyra charged at him. Without even sparing them a glance, Ellison lashed out with one long leg, striking their knees with devastating force.

They crumpled to the ground, the impact sending them straight to their knees before him. The pain kept them there. unable to rise. Just like that, their strength in numbers meant nothing

"Why did you come?" Tears spilled down Joycelyn's checks.

"Were you planning to let them devour you alive?" Fury simmered beneath his words as Ellison surveyed her injuries.

She pressed closer, needing his strength even more than during last night's storm.

12:54 Mon, Feb 10 0

Chapter B

"So you're the poor sap who bought her that cheap car!" Octaviaeered from behind her mother's skirts, eyeing him nervously.

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FIJ

Despite his impeccable suit and commanding presence, she sneered inside, Nice suit but can only afford a compact car- must be some ordinary salesman!

"That's him, Mom and Dad, she crowed from her safe distance. "That's the one"