Chapter 6 - The Awakening
“Victoria,” Dante breathed, dropping to his knees beside his sister with a speed that shattered his cool exterior. He gathered her shoulders gently into his arms, ignoring the blood staining the front of his expensive wool coat. “Vicky, stay still. Don't move.”
Victoria swallowed hard, her voice coming out as a dry, painful croak. “Dante...? Am I... am I dead?”
“No,” Dante said, his voice thick with an emotion he rarely allowed the world to see. “You’re alive. And the man who did this isn't going to walk another step as a free man.”
Michael, cowering near the base of the grand staircase, stared at his wife in sheer disbelief. “She... she’s breathing? But she hit the glass so hard—!”
“She’s wearing a reinforced silk lining beneath the sequin dress, you absolute fool,” Dante snapped over his shoulder, his eyes flashing with lethal fury. “A trick she learned from growing up in our family—something you were too arrogant and self-absorbed to ever notice.”
Victoria turned her head slightly, her gaze locking onto Michael where he stood trembling against the banister. A cold, hardened resolve settled into her bruised features. She didn't cry. She didn't beg. She looked at him the way a scientist looks at a specimen under a microscope.
“Michael,” Victoria whispered, her voice gaining strength. “It’s over.”
“Vicky—wait!” Michael stammered, holding his hands out defensively as two of Dante’s guards began closing in on him from either side. “We can talk about this! We have a family! Think of Mia!”
“I am thinking of Mia,” Victoria said, her voice cutting through the room like cold steel. “Every single second of every single day for the last seven years, I stayed in this house for her. But you crossed the line tonight. You tried to murder me in front of my daughter.”
Dante stood up slowly, stepping between Michael and his sister. He gestured to the two guards.
“Take him outside,” Dante ordered softly.
“Where? Where are you taking me?!” Michael panicked, thrashing as the two massive tactical guards grabbed him by the arms, lifting his feet clean off the marble floor.
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“To the shipping docks,” Dante replied without looking at him. “We’re going to discuss corporate restructuring over a barrel of salt water. Let’s see how tough you are when you don't have a glass cabinet to hide behind.”
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