Chapter 6
The ringing silence in the conservatory was profound, punctuated only by the wet, rattling groans coming from Sterling as he lay bleeding in the dirt. The bright video colors of the shattered ceramic and the dark soil created a surreal, high-definition portrait of total devastation against the pristine white tiles.
Victoria stared at her brother’s ruined body, her pale, porcelain skin turning a sickly, translucent white. The elegant, untouchable aristocratic mask she wore shattered entirely, replaced by a surge of pure, unadulterated panic. The horrific reality that her status, her beauty, and her engagement ring offered absolutely zero protection against the wrath of the man she had just betrayed finally crashed down upon her.
She looked at Silas. The Mafia boss was slowly turning his cold, intimidating eyes toward her, his chest rising and falling with perfectly measured breaths.
Driven by cornered, hysterical desperation, Victoria’s mind fractured. She realized she had crossed an unforgivable line. She needed to escape the estate immediately, before Silas decided to deliver the same brutal justice to her.
Victoria spun around, her high heels scraping frantically against the tiles. She looked desperately for something to shield herself with or a way to ensure her exit. Her panicked eyes locked onto Gloria’s expensive leather handbag, which was resting on the wicker chair near the door.
"Get out of my way!" Victoria shrieked, entirely abandoning her aristocratic composure.
She lunged toward the elderly woman. Gloria, still clutching the weeping Amara, turned her body to shield her granddaughter. Victoria didn't care. She aggressively grabbed Gloria’s handbag by the heavy leather straps, intending to use the cash and keys inside to flee the compound.
Silas’s eyes turned into black, soulless voids.
He moved with the terrifying, explosive speed of a predator protecting its pride. Before Victoria could even pull the handbag off the chair, Silas’s massive, tattooed hand shot out. He caught Victoria’s wrist in an iron, inescapable grip, his fingers digging brutally into her fair skin.
Victoria let out a sharp gasp of shock, her eyes widening as the immense, immovable power of her fiancé completely arrested her momentum.
"Let me go!" Victoria screamed, struggling frantically to pull her arm free, her diamond bracelets clinking loudly in the tense silence.
Silas did not flinch. He did not utter a single word of warning.
With a sudden, devastating exertion of raw masculine power, Silas violently tore the handbag completely out of her grip. He tossed it safely behind him.
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He didn't pause. Utilizing the momentum of her own frantic struggle, Silas pulled his right hand back and delivered one thunderous, catastrophic open-handed slap directly across Victoria’s face.
The sound of the impact cracked like a whip, echoing fiercely through the brightly lit glass-roofed room.
