Chapter 5 - THE PRICE OF CRUELTY
Richard stared at the heavily armed tactical team,
realizing that his money and his lawyers meant nothing here.
The men surrounding his car weren't interested in arguments or contracts.
They were instruments of a much higher power.
Richard began to tremble,
a visible,
violent shaking that took over his entire body.
Beside him,
the mistress was a wreck of tears and fear.
She frantically clutched my mother's stolen necklace,
her knuckles white.
The emerald seemed to glow in the darkness,
a beacon of the life she had tried to steal.
Alexander looked at the necklace for a brief second,
his jaw tightening.
He looked back at me,
his expression softening for just a fraction of a moment.
Come,
he whispered,
offering his arm.
We are leaving this place,
he added,
his voice a warm anchor in the chaos.
I took his arm,
feeling the solid strength of his muscle beneath the suit.
As we walked down the steps,
the tactical team parted like the Red Sea.
We walked past Richard's car,
and for the first time,
I looked at him without fear.
He looked small,
he looked pathetic,
and he looked utterly broken.
He realized,
in that terrifying moment,
that he had made a fatal mistake.
He had violently thrown into the streets a woman he thought was a "nobody."
But he was about to discover that my existence was the one thing he could never touch again.
He had invited a war he couldn't win.
And Alexander Vance was the commander-in-chief.
The mistress tried to hide,
sliding down into the footwell of the car.
But there was nowhere left to go.
May you like
The world they knew was ending,
and mine was just beginning.
