"Ahh!" I screamed as my knees hit the floor.
Someone grabbed my hair. "Bow. Apologize."
The grip was merciless, treating my skull like a ball to be bounced off the ice-cold tile.
"Never!" The room spun around me. I wanted to fight back, to run. But I was powerless.
The guard gripped my head and drove it into the floor again and again.
Crack.
Crack.
Crack…
Blood ran down—warm, sticky—streaming along my brow and into my eyes. The world dissolved into a blurred wash of red.
Through that red, I saw Alice.
She was curled in Dustin's arms like a frightened rabbit, her body trembling delicately. But behind those wide, tearful eyes, triumph glittered like a blade catching light.
Dustin bowed his head and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, his touch impossibly gentle. He stroked her hair, slow and tender, as though she were something infinitely precious.
What a perfect couple.
What a magnificent love story.
The blood kept flowing, dripping onto the floor one drop at a time—a libation poured in honor of their magnificent love.
My screams faded to nothing. Not because the pain had stopped, but because I had nothing left. My lips were bitten through, my throat shredded raw. All that remained was the ragged sound of my breathing—like a fish gasping on dry land.
"Mr. Delgado, she—she's badly hurt." Someone spoke up, hesitant and uneasy.
Dustin finally lifted his head and looked at me. He saw it—the horrifying blood, the split flesh of my forehead.
"Just apologize," he said after a pause, something unreadable flickering through his voice, "and I'll let you go."
I stared at him and the woman in his arms. Every syllable cost me everything I had left.
"Over… my… dead… body."
Alice whimpered again, soft and pitiful.
"Let it go. Even though she wanted to kill me, I can't bear to watch this." She buried her face against his chest, her shoulders quivering. "Let's just leave. The baby's kicking—I don't feel well."
Dustin's voice turned impossibly tender. "You're too kind. That's exactly why she walks all over you."
Then he lifted her into his arms, cradling her like a bride on her wedding night.
As he passed me, he stopped. His words fell like ice.
"If there's a next time, you won't get off this easy. Cecily—for the sake of the child in your belly, I suggest you learn your place."
Then he carried her out and disappeared through the door.
The bodyguards dispersed. The crowd scattered.