Chapter 6
"Mark!"
The shrill, hysterical scream tore through the shocked silence of the room. Claudia, her face contorted in a mix of absolute panic and unhinged fury, completely lost whatever sense of self-preservation she possessed. Seeing her husband bleeding in the wreckage of the wine trolley, her eyes darted to the man responsible.
"Are you insane?!" Claudia shrieked, her American accent turning utterly shrill. She stomped across the room, her high heels crunching dangerously over the shattered crystal on the floor. "You crazy old man! Look what you did to him!"
Richard did not even blink. He remained perfectly still, his massive frame shielding the shivering boy behind him. In his left hand, he still tightly gripped Noah’s handmade wooden airplane.
Seeing the toy, Claudia’s misplaced rage boiled over. In her mind, this miserable piece of wood was the catalyst for the destruction of her perfect evening. With a snarl, she lunged aggressively toward Richard, her manicured claws reaching violently to snatch the wooden airplane right out of the patriarch's hand. "Give me that piece of garbage!" she screamed.
She never even touched it.
Richard violently tore the airplane away from her reach, stepping into her aggressive lunge. With terrifying, calculated precision, he brought his heavy, right hand up and delivered one thunderous, open-handed slap squarely across Claudia’s flushed cheek.
The impact sounded like a bullwhip cracking in an empty church.
The sheer force of the blow ripped Claudia’s feet out from under her. She spun violently backward, her arms flailing wildly in the air, her elegant emerald dress snapping around her legs. She flew backward and slammed heavily into the edge of the long, wooden gift-wrapping table.
The heavy table violently tipped backward under her momentum. Massive rolls of thick, metallic wrapping paper unraveled like cascading waterfalls, shooting across the room. Bright, explosive bows scattered across the polished hardwood floor like confetti. The towering stacks of carefully wrapped birthday boxes collapsed, tumbling down onto Claudia as the entire table overturned with a resounding crash.
"Someone help her!" a guest cried out from the back, but the heavy, menacing glare from Richard’s bodyguards instantly silenced the room.
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Claudia lay sprawled in the ruins of the wrapping station, her elegant winter dress ruined. A bright red, hand-shaped welt was rapidly swelling across the left side of her face. Her perfect hair was a tangled mess, and she stared up at the ceiling, her eyes wide with absolute, paralyzing shock. She pressed a trembling, manicured hand to her burning cheek, completely incapable of formulating a coherent thought.
Richard lowered his hand slowly. The heavy gold signet ring on his finger caught the light of the fire, glinting ominously. The destruction in the room was absolute. Half of the grand hall was a battlefield of splintered wood, shattered glass, spilled wine, and ruined luxury. And in the center of it all, Richard stood entirely unmoved, an apex predator who had just reminded his territory exactly who ruled it.
