Chapter 6
The ringing silence in the ballroom was profound, broken only by the wet, rattling groans of Richard Sterling bleeding beneath the collapsed champagne tower. The bright, elegant video colors of the room starkly illuminated the total devastation. Eleanor Sterling, witnessing the catastrophic defeat of her son, abandoned all pretense of aristocratic superiority.
The sixty-seven-year-old former matriarch turned sharply, her emerald formal gown sweeping across the marble, and tried desperately to leave. She walked briskly toward the grand ballroom exit, her high heels clicking frantically, attempting to escape the wrath she had so arrogantly provoked.
She didn't make it five steps.
Elena moved with silent, predatory grace, cutting off the escape route in seconds. She stepped directly into Eleanor’s path, her golden gown acting as an impenetrable wall of fabric and lethal intent. Elena blocked her completely.
"Get out of my way, you insolent child!" Eleanor shrieked, panic finally cracking her composed, fair face.
Driven by cornered desperation, Eleanor raised her hand and slapped Elena violently across the face. The strike was sharp, but it lacked the devastating power of her son's punch. Elena barely blinked.
Realizing the slap had done nothing to deter the terrifying Mafia boss, Eleanor made a fatal, unhinged miscalculation. She reached her heavily ringed hand out, lunging past Elena’s hip, attempting to grab little Lily again to use the child as a human shield.
Elena’s reaction was instantaneous and absolute.
Before Eleanor’s fingers could even brush the fabric of the little girl’s wet dress, Elena caught the older woman’s wrist in an iron grip. She twisted the wrist brutally, forcing Eleanor to cry out in sudden, sharp agony.
"You will never touch her again," Elena whispered.
With her left hand still gripping Eleanor’s wrist, Elena drew back her right hand and delivered one thunderous, devastating open-handed slap directly across Eleanor’s powdered face. The sound cracked like a whip in the silent hall.
The sheer force of the slap disoriented the older woman, but Elena was not finished. Releasing her grip on the wrist, Elena shifted her weight flawlessly and drove a powerful, brutal front kick directly into Eleanor’s torso.
The heavy leather sole of Elena’s heel connected squarely with the older woman’s chest. The kinetic force lifted the sixty-seven-year-old entirely off her feet. Eleanor rocketed violently backward, her arms flailing helplessly as she was launched through the air.
She crashed catastrophically into the massive, rolling ballroom-decoration cabinet positioned near the exit.
May you like
The heavy wooden cabinet buckled under the impact. Its doors flew open, and the entire structure tipped violently backward. A massive payload of expensive decorations exploded into the room. Long, vibrant silk table runners spilled across the polished floor like rivers of color. Heavy decorative cords unraveled, snapping like whips across the marble. Empty, ornate centerpiece boxes tumbled open, their lids flying into the crowd. Thick, folded chair covers burst from their shelves, raining down over Eleanor as she collapsed heavily beside the overturned cabinet.
She lay on the floor, gasping for breath, clutching her ribs in agony, completely buried beneath the luxurious decorations of the empire she had tried to steal. The absolute dismantling of the old guard was complete.
