Braden sat on the edge of his unmade bed, his chest heaving as if he were suffocating. His thumb swiped aggressively across his phone screen, his bloodshot eyes locked onto the photo Chelsea had just posted. The image of Hazel sitting at the head of the table-radiating that untouchable, terrifying authority-made his stomach churn. But it wasn't just fear anymore. It was the caption. It was the comments. Everyone was bowing to her. His own sister had publicly defected, leaving him entirely isolated in a house that suddenly felt like a tomb. A sickening mix of ultimate betrayal and absolute humiliation clawed at his throat. He felt a massive, existential threat closing in on him, erasing his very identity. This woman was using some kind of dark witchcraft to brainwash his sister and steal his family. The agonizing sting of being replaced and forgotten finally boiled over, violently burning away the lingering terror that had paralyzed him since yesterday.
He threw his phone against the wall. He stormed out of his bedroom and stomped down the stairs, hunting for her.
He found Hazel in the main living room. She was sitting in a velvet armchair, calmly reading a thick, leather-bound book.
"You manipulative bitch!" Braden roared, his voice cracking with hysteria. "You're trying to steal everything from us!"
Hazel slowly closed the heavy book.
She lifted her eyes. The temperature in the room plummeted. She looked at him with the cold, dead eyes of an executioner.
The look pushed Braden over the edge. He lost his mind. He lunged forward, swinging his fist blindly at her face.
Hazel didn't even stand up.
She merely shifted her torso to the left. Braden's fist hit empty air.
Before he could recover his balance, Hazel's hand shot out. She grabbed his wrist with terrifying precision. She used his own forward momentum, twisting her body and yanking his arm downward.
An irresistible, mechanical force pulled Braden forward. He tripped over his own feet and crashed hard onto the floor.
Hazel moved like lightning. She stood up, her long leg sweeping out in a brutal arc. Her shin slammed into the back of his knee.
Braden let out a sharp cry of pain as he collapsed onto the expensive Persian rug.
Before he could even draw a breath, Hazel was on top of him.
She dropped her weight onto his back, driving her knee with bone-crushing force right between his shoulder blades. She grabbed his right arm, twisting his wrist backward at an angle that defied human anatomy. With a brutal, fluid motion born of classical, centuries-old grappling techniques, she used her entire body as a mechanical lever, trapping his shoulder and elbow in an inescapable, agonizing joint lock.
A blinding, agonizing pain shot through Braden's elbow and shoulder.
He let out a pathetic, pig-like squeal. He slammed his left hand against the rug, tapping frantically in a desperate plea for mercy.
Hazel did not let go.
Instead, she arched her hips slightly. The joint popped with a sickening crack.
Braden screamed louder, tears bursting from his eyes.
Hazel leaned down. Her red lips hovered just inches from his ear.
"I can freeze every single cent of your trust fund with one phone call," she whispered. Her voice was as smooth and cold as polished marble.
Braden stopped struggling. His body went completely rigid. The raw, animalistic terror in his eyes confirmed he knew she wasn't bluffing.
Hazel pressed her knee deeper into his spine.
"Three years of gambling debts. Four destroyed sports cars. Two NDAs paid out to silence your messes," she listed, her voice dripping with venom.
She pulled his arm a fraction of an inch tighter.
"Without the Powers name shielding you, you are less than the garbage rotting in the gutters of this city."
Every single word stabbed directly into Braden's fragile ego. The illusion of his independence shattered into a million pieces.
Hot, humiliating tears rolled down Braden's cheeks and soaked into the Persian rug.
"I'm sorry," he sobbed, his voice breaking. "I'm nothing. I'm sorry."
He completely surrendered. His spirit was broken.
Hazel stared at the back of his head for three long seconds. Once she was certain the rebellion was entirely dead, she released his arm and stood up.
Braden collapsed flat against the floor, gasping for air like a dying fish.
Hazel smoothed out the invisible wrinkles on her loungewear. Her movements were slow and elegant.
"You will be awake at six o'clock tomorrow morning," she commanded, looking down at him. "Your rehabilitation begins."
Braden didn't dare argue. He nodded his head against the rug, too weak to even speak.
Hazel turned her back on him. She didn't spare him a second glance as she walked toward the staircase.
Braden lay on the floor, his cheek pressed against the damp fibers of the rug, watching her walk away. His entire body trembled uncontrollably. A suffocating cocktail of blinding physical pain, absolute humiliation, and an unprecedented, primal terror violently gripped his heart. As her elegant silhouette disappeared up the stairs, the crushing reality of his existence finally settled over him. He wasn't a rebel. He wasn't a threat. He realized, with a sickening drop in his stomach, that inside the walls of this grand estate, he was nothing more than a pathetic, easily broken stray.
