Biting The Billionaire: My Sweet Revenge

Alyce Brennan shoved open the heavy glass doors of Mount Sinai Hospital's emergency room, her bare feet slipping on the wet marble steps. Rain soaked her dark brown hair, plastering it to her pale cheeks as her chest heaved for air.

Two burly security guards stepped forward, crossing their batons to block her path. They grabbed her shoulders and shoved her back toward the pouring rain.

"No visitation clearance! Get out!" the taller guard barked, sneering at her muddy hem. "The Brennan family gave strict orders. Even if you're the biological daughter brought back from the slums, you're nothing here!"

Alyce bit down hard on her lower lip until blood pooled on her tongue. Dropping her center of gravity, she ducked under the guard's thick arm. Her shoulder clipped a metal medical cart, sending stainless steel trays crashing to the tile floor with a deafening clatter.

Blinding white light spilled from the resuscitation room at the end of the hall. Alyce stumbled forward and threw herself against the frosted glass door. Her fingers clawed at the metal frame, her nails bending backward and bleeding from the force.

The door swung open. A doctor stepped out, looked at her bleeding hands, and slowly shook his head.

"Time of death, 11:42 PM. The oxygen line was disconnected."

Alyce's knees buckled. She dropped straight onto the freezing tiles, a raw, strangled wail tearing from her throat as her fists twisted the soaked fabric over her chest.

Dragging herself across the floor on her hands and knees, she crawled into the room. A white sheet covered the small hospital bed. Hanging over the edge was a tiny, bloodless hand covered in dark needle bruises-her three-year-old daughter.

She reached out a trembling hand to touch those cold little fingers, then froze mid-air. Hot tears spilled over her lashes, soaking into the white linen.

Measured clicks of high heels echoed down the corridor, mingled with the heavy thud of leather shoes. The footsteps stopped right outside the open door.

Alyce turned her head stiffly. Through the dim light, her gaze locked onto the man standing in the doorway in a tailored charcoal suit-her husband, Jacoby Mercer, heir to the Mercer family.

Beside him, Charisse Brennan-the adopted sister who had stolen Alyce's identity and luxury for twenty years-slid her arm intimately through his, wearing a pristine white couture gown.

Alyce lunged to her feet, her bloodshot eyes fixed on Jacoby as she grabbed his silk tie.

"You pulled her oxygen tube?!" Her voice rasped like torn sandpaper. "She was only three years old! She was your own daughter!"

Jacoby yanked her hand off and swung his palm forcefully across her face. The strike sent her crashing into a heart monitor, blood trickling from her lip.

"My daughter?" Jacoby spat, his face twisted in disgust as he wiped his hands with a handkerchief. "She's just a bastard you birthed from some stray in the gutter before returning to the Brennans! I gave her three years of shelter, and that was mercy. The Mercer family doesn't raise wild bastards!"

Alyce froze, her stomach churning violently. "What... what did you say? She was yours!"

Charisse glided forward, her stiletto heel stepping directly onto Alyce's trembling, bloody fingers on the floor. She leaned down, whispering with dark malice into Alyce's ear.

"Stop dreaming, Alyce. Jacoby never loved a dirty girl from the slums. And don't bother waiting for your parents to save you-Katherine and Edward died in that highway crash a year ago, after you married into the Mercer family. It wasn't an accident. We cut their brakes."

Alyce's pupils shrank to pinpricks, her breath catching in her throat. "You... you murdered my biological parents?!"

"If your biological parents didn't die, how could the Brennan family's billions in trust funds fall entirely into my hands?" Charisse let out a delicate, mocking laugh. "You lost your biological parents, your bastard kid, and your place in high society. You're nothing."

Blood rushed to Alyce's ears. Snatching a pair of surgical scissors from a tray beside her, she let out a guttural roar and plunged the blades straight toward Charisse's neck.

"Die! Both of you!"

Jacoby lashed out, his heavy boot slamming straight into Alyce's stomach. The blow lifted her off her feet and threw her violently against the concrete wall. The scissors clattered to the floor.

Two bodyguards rushed in, wrenching Alyce's arms behind her back and dragging her out of the room.

Alyce thrashed violently, her bare feet scraping red streaks across the floor as she stared at the white sheet covering her daughter, screaming until her vocal cords tore.

The guards hurled her out of the main entrance. Her body rolled twice across the rough asphalt before the icy downpour swallowed her whole.

Lying in a muddy puddle, she looked back into the warm, lit lobby. Jacoby gently draped his coat over Charisse's shoulders, the two of them smiling softly at each other.

Her child was called a bastard and murdered on life support.

Her biological parents were murdered in a rigged car crash.

Her entire life was stolen and ground into the mud.

Alyce dug her bloody fingers into the asphalt until her nails snapped against the stone.

She pushed herself up, swaying as she walked into the blinding Manhattan storm. Rain washed the blood from her chin, but it couldn't cool the roaring hell inside her chest.

She walked until she reached a dark, unlit intersection.

A semi-truck horn blared through the deluge. Two blinding high beams locked onto her frail silhouette.

She didn't run. Turning toward the blinding light, the bloody corners of her mouth curved into a cold, terrifying smile.

"If there's a next life... I'll drag all of you down to hell with me."

Tires screeched. The massive steel bumper slammed into her body, flinging her high into the air.

As her bones snapped and her vision faded into bloody darkness, the images of her daughter's cold hand and her biological parents' loving faces flashed behind her eyes...