re awe and intimidation. Helena felt neither. As she walked across the polished marble floor the n
ing ice, insisting Helena deliver it to Gaston in person. "A wife should support her husband during a crisis," she'd
low, dismissive once-over. "Name?" she asked, her tone implying He
I have a documen
le Helena stood in the center of the vast lobby, feeling the weight of a hundred curio
behind the reception desk flickered
lity in Nevada," a news anchor said, her face grim. "Violent clashes have erupted
re for support. She'd sent her as a message: I control everything. I control the board, I control t
leep, and the relentless psychological warfare was taking its toll. The towering lobby b
r the entrance. Shouts. The scree
a mask of rage. He was wild-eyed, frantic, and in his hand, he brandi
hat you did!" he screamed
ttered like frightened birds, their bri
emerged, flanked by a phalanx of executives, his head bent as he spoke urge
omment to the press. Get our
ommanding a battle on a distant front, obliv
of pure hatred ripped from his throa
s a man possessed, fueled by a righteous fur
feet away. Five
the years of cruelty against this single, b
s only i
n: a boy in the rain, shrugging off his coat, drap
ward arc, aimed directly at
e, placing her own small body between the man she w
breaking her. She was saving the boy who, once, had be
ep, piercing cold that plunged into her back, just below her left s
to a kaleidoscope of spinning lights and screaming faces
numb fingers, scattering pape
f confusion that morphed into sheer horror, dropped his pho
moving on pure reflex,
where, delivered a vicious kick to the man's chest, sending him sprawling. Security guards swar
d. People we
aw Gaston's face, close to hers, his eyes wide with a terror she had neve
across the crisp white of her blo
oded through her body in a white-hot wave. It was
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