A Widow's Poison, A Wife's Rebellion novel Chapter 414

"Or do you not believe me?" Xenia pleaded. "If you don't, we can go to the Yelchin estate right now and confront her! You can hear for yourself if she was on the phone with a man from Yoran Country, telling him she misses him!"

Xenia was burning with indignation. Starla had betrayed him, yet he was still protecting her? What did that make Xenia? She had walked all this way just to warn him!

Thinking of the humiliation she had suffered at Starla's hands, tears welled in her eyes.

"Yes, I have no manners, but she drove me to this!" she cried. "Do you have any idea how arrogant she's become at the Yelchin estate because of you? She threw all my things out of my room! And now you're hitting me—for a woman who betrayed you?"

Xenia couldn't stop herself, hammering the point home again and again—Starla hadn't divorced Fairfax, and now she had a lover in Yoran Country.

"Can your ego really handle that?" she challenged. "She has a husband and a lover, so what does that make you?"

In a blur of motion, Herbert was in front of her. His hand clamped around her throat, and all the air was violently expelled from her lungs. Her vision swam as the world went fuzzy.

The pressure was immense, as if he meant to snap her neck. She could feel the chilling promise of death in his grip. Instinctively, she clawed at his powerful wrist.

"Let... g-go..." she tried to choke out, but no sound emerged.

He was actually going to kill her! For Starla!

Xenia gasped for air on the floor, the humiliation of his gesture cutting deeper than the physical pain. But she was too terrified to utter another word. She knew now that he really would have killed her.

Rudolf looked down at her, bewildered. "Ms. Yelchin, what are you still doing here? You should go!"

He couldn't believe she was just lying there after nearly being murdered. Was she trying to get herself killed?

The reality of the situation finally crashed down on Xenia. She shakily pushed herself to her feet. She had never imagined this outcome. He hadn't gone after Starla. Instead, he had nearly killed her.