Chapter 5
"You are an animal!" Evelyn shrieked, looking up at Damon from the scattered rackets and foam grips. Her elegant tennis-club outfit was now dusted with debris. "He is my brother! How could you do this?"
"How could I do this?" Damon repeated. His voice was a quiet, resonant rumble. "He aimed a machine at my child."
"It was a joke!" Evelyn screamed, scrambling to her feet. "It was just tennis balls, Damon! They wouldn't have hurt her!"
"You fired projectiles at a three-year-old girl," Damon said, his words dropping like heavy stones. "While she begged you to stop."
"She needs to toughen up!" Evelyn yelled, her fair skin flushed with frantic, unhinged anger. "You coddle her! You treat her like glass! I am going to be her stepmother! I have a right to discipline her!"
"You have no rights," Damon stated, his icy stare pinning her in place. "You have nothing."
"I am your fiancée!" Evelyn cried, pointing to the massive diamond engagement ring on her finger. "My family is merging with yours next week! You cannot speak to me this way!"
"There will be no merger," Damon said slowly. "And there will be no wedding."
Evelyn gasped, the air leaving her lungs in a sudden, sharp hiss. "You can't be serious. You're canceling a hundred-million-dollar partnership over a temper tantrum?"
"I am canceling it because you are a monster," Damon replied softly.
"You can't do this to me!" Evelyn lunged forward, bypassing Damon completely. She rushed directly toward Hazel, who was standing safely between Cora and the two bodyguards. "Hazel! Tell your father you're fine! Tell him!"
Evelyn reached out, her manicured fingers grabbing violently at the soft pink fabric of Hazel’s cardigan.
"Mommy!" Hazel shrieked, terrified, trying to pull away.
Damon did not shout. He did not issue a warning.
He crossed the distance in a single, fluid stride. His tattooed hand shot out, catching Evelyn by the wrist. He tore her hand away from his daughter’s cardigan with enough force to nearly dislocate her shoulder.
Before Evelyn could scream, Damon delivered one thunderous, open-handed slap across her face.
The impact was devastating. Evelyn spun backward, her arms wheeling through the air. She crashed hard onto the padded court bench.
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The force of her fall sent the heavy bench sliding across the asphalt. It slammed into a tall stack of orange practice cones. The cones shattered outward, scattering across the bright green court in a chaotic wave. Folded spare nets, resting on the back of the bench, toppled over, falling heavily across Evelyn’s shoulders and pinning her to the cushions.
The black ball-machine remote dropped from her hand, bouncing twice before coming to rest near Damon’s polished shoes.
