Rachel glanced at Tyler. He looked cold and distant, as though this matter had nothing to do with him.

Indeed. Whether Tyler decided to intervene had nothing to do with the matter at hand.

Rachel looked back at William and started to walk toward him.

Her approach brought a smile to William’s face. He knew that, given Rachel’s character, she would never give up on Jim.

He understood his uncle well, too.

Tyler was an oddball, and temperamental at that. Even if one spent much time with him, it would still be a challenge trying to figure out what was going on in his mind.

Given her personality, Rachel would never be able to handle him.

William reached out to hold Rachel’s hand with a smile on his face, but she never took it.

At the next moment, her words sent him straight to hell.

“William, I advise you to give up hope on that ever happening. Even if I can’t find a man for the rest of my life, I’ll never be with someone like you.

“The nasty things you and Samantha did feel like they just happened yesterday, and they disgusted me to no end. What makes you think that I’ll cheapen myself to be with a filthy bastard like you?

“I’d rather find a hot gigolo elsewhere than be with you again. That gigolo will treat me like a queen as I pay him enough. You, on the other hand…”

Rachel was making it clear as day.

William was worse than a gigolo in her eyes.

Fury burned in William’s chest, the veins on his forehead popping.

“Rachel, you’re playing me for a fool!” he snarled through gritted teeth.

Rachel chuckled. “How am I playing you for a fool? Since when did I say that I wanted to get back together with you again? Or that I wanted to leave with you?”

Enraged and embarrassed, William grabbed Rachel’s wrist and demanded, “You’re coming with me today, whether you like it or not!”

The mere thought of the woman he spent seven years with sleeping with his uncle suffocated him with humiliation.

Rachel’s face turned cold when he saw how insistent William was. She raised her voice at him, snarling, “William, let me go! What right do you have to take me away?”

William’s face twisted with anger as he tugged Rachel toward him. “The fact that you’ll forever be a member of the Lewis family, whether you’re dead or alive!”

Rachel pursed her lips tightly; she was preparing to strike William back when Tyler beat her to it. He lunged toward William, pulled Rachel into his embrace with one hand, and shoved William away with the other.

William almost lost his balance and stumbled a few steps back.

Tyler looked icily at William, his gaze piercing through him. “Did you not hear what I said earlier? Scram!” William’s face flushed red with anger and embarrassment, but there was nothing he could do to Tyler. He knew that if Tyler hadn’t stepped in, it would have been easy to deal with Rachel.

She was just a woman, and certainly no match for a man like him.

Yet now, with Tyler like an angered beast, William knew that taking Rachel away from under his nose was an impossible feat.

Even so, William refused to back down, threatening Rachel as he glared daggers at her.

“Rachel, you blew this chance. Don’t blame me for disregarding our past as husband and wife!”

Rachel rebuffed, “Quit bringing up our past all the time. It really cheapens the idea of what a husband and wife really should be.”