✓ WICKED VOWS| JAKE (Book II )

31-Ignite, my dear.

Jake's pov

Tormenting, haunting, bewitching. I held my wife's naked pictures, in my hands. The second I stepped inside my office after I changed my clothes. David followed with a file, he gave a file of naked pictures of my wife. Pictures of her in the shower and pictures of her in the bathroom, the madest thing was that those pictures were taken in the palace during our early stay in there. My wife was stalked in my own wing, her own wing. 

I was mad, I wanted to feel the relief of giving in to the destruction.

"Do you think the visit of Sana this morning has an inkling in this?" David, my bodyguard, spoke.

"Sana may be stupid, but she is not. She came here this morning to talk to me about the reigning of York. She was asking for the title of Duchess of York. But she did not do anything to deserve her title; her father being the Duke of York does not mean that I or my father will give her the title."

"She is a visitor to the palace. And kind of being the slave of your grandmother, the grandmother that assigned a private investigator to your wife. And installing cameras in your room is just another level of madness, Jake."

"Madness is what I'm about to make real, Dav. I cannot accept this. I will not accept this." I felt the veins in my hands wanting to poke out just looking at Anna naked in the pictures. Grandmother dearest was behind this. She had poked the bear, and she might follow my grandpa to his grave soon enough.

I didn't wait for David to follow me as I drove to the palace. I didn't call my mom or father because I knew they had nothing to do with this, and the Duke of York had a say in this with my grandmother who took pictures of Anna to make Anna hate her and then ask for a divorce.

The drive to the palace was a blur of anger and determination. I parked the car haphazardly and stormed into the grand halls, my mind set on confronting my grandmother. The maids and staff scattered like frightened birds as I marched through the corridors, my fury palpable.

I found her in the art room, sipping tea as if she hadn't just committed an unforgivable invasion of privacy. She looked up at me with a serene smile, her eyes gleaming with calculated malice. Her blonde hair, now streaked with gray and white, framed a face that had once been beautiful but now seemed only cruel.

"Jake, dear, what brings you here in such a rush?" she asked, her voice sickeningly sweet.

I threw the photographs onto the table in front of her. "I'm just here for the second time this year because of your naivety," I demanded, my voice low and dangerous. My demeanor was calm, but the aura around me was like fire, seething with an intensity that threatened to consume everything in its path.

She glanced at the pictures, feigning surprise. "Oh, my. Where did you find these? It was supposed to be delivered to the bratva princess." Bratva queen actually.

"You've crossed a line. And this naivety of yours will get you burned grandmother."

Her expression hardened. "That woman is not fit to be part of this family. She's not of pure blood. She doesn't deserve to be royalty."

"She is my wife!" I roared, my hands clenching into fists. "You had no right to invade our privacy like this. You had no right to humiliate her." I know that she wants Anna to hate her and ask for a divorce, but that will never happen unless she wants it.

"I did what was necessary to protect our lineage, and I will still be doing," she replied coldly. "She is a threat to everything our family stands for. She is an assassin," she continued. "Do you really think a woman like that belongs in our family?"

"The arranged marriage is already done," I shot back. "It was grandfather's decision, and he had the final say and the contract was already signed years ago before his death. He believed in power, and that marriage brought power."