THE BLEEDING MARBLE

"She's pregnant!" Ryan yelled again, pointing a wildly trembling finger toward Maya, though his eyes kept returning to Clara's motionless form at the bottom of the staircase. "Maya is carrying my child, Julian! Why did you do that?!"

Julian turned around slowly. He climbed three steps up, stepping directly into Ryan's path, blocking him from moving any closer to either woman.

Julian’s face was stone. He looked down at Ryan with utter contempt, stepping forward until Ryan was forced to take a step back up the stairs.

"She's pregnant?" Julian repeated, his voice dripping with pure, concentrated venom. He leaned forward, poking his thick forefinger hard into the center of Ryan’s chest, driving him back another step. "That didn't matter when she was your wife."

Ryan blinked, his mind reeling. "What? What are you talking about?!"

"You didn't care about her health when you filed those fraudulent divorce papers three months ago," Julian said, his voice cold and precise. "You didn't care when you froze her medical accounts. You didn't care when you hired that poison-peddling mistress of yours to stalk her every move."

"I didn't know Clara was going to do this today!" Ryan cried out, his voice turning high-pitched and hysterical. "I swear to God, Julian, I didn't know!"

From the top of the courthouse staircase, the heavy double glass doors swung open again.

Four armed uniformed officers from the Sheriff’s Department spilled out onto the top landing, their heavy duty belts clanking, their radio chatter crackling through the hot afternoon air. They had been summoned by the silent alarm triggered by the security desk inside.

"Police! Don't move!" the lead officer shouted, his hand resting on his holstered sidearm as he surveyed the chaos below: two women lying motionless or in agony on different levels of the marble stairs, blood pooling on the lower landing, and two men in suits standing toe-to-toe in a fierce confrontation.

Ryan turned toward the officers, throwing his hands into the air with frantic relief. "Officers! Over here! Help them! This man just assaulted my associate! He threw her down the stairs!"

Julian didn't look at the officers. He kept his dark eyes locked entirely on Ryan’s pale face.

Without breaking eye contact, Julian raised his left hand, pointing his finger squarely at Ryan, and then shifted the target of his finger to point down at the man in the charcoal suit kneeling beside Clara.

"Officers!" Julian shouted, his voice carrying incredible, authoritative weight across the open plaza. "Arrest them both for collusion and attempted murder!"

Ryan’s jaw dropped. "What?!"

Down on the middle landing, Maya rolled weakly onto her side. The pain in her abdomen was blinding, a tearing sensation that made the world spin in dizzying shades of grey and red. Through her blurred vision, she looked up at Ryan’s panicked face.