Chapter 3 - The Threat in the Velvet
The silence in the grand dining room was suffocating, broken only by the harsh, rhythmic clicking of the crystal chandelier as it swayed slightly in the draft coming from the open terrace doors.
Victoria crouched down beside Elena, her dark red velvet gown spilling over the marble floor like a pool of drying arterial blood. Up close, Victoria’s face was a study in psychological disintegration. Her dark eyes were dilated, the irises almost entirely swallowed by blackness, and a thin sheen of sweat glistened on her pale collarbone.
"You think you won because he put a ring on your finger?" Victoria whispered, her voice dropping into a raspy, intimacy that made Elena’s skin crawl. "You think having his heir makes you untouchable? Look at you. You're bleeding like a slaughtered animal on my mahogany floor."
"Victoria... please..." Elena gasped, her hands trembling violently as she tried to shield her stomach. Pain was radiating across her abdomen now—a deep, tearing contraction that tightened her womb into a rock-hard knot. "The baby... he's coming... something's wrong..."
"Let him come," Victoria sneered, reaching out with one gloved hand to grab a handful of Elena’s wet, tear-soaked hair. She pulled Elena’s head back brutally, forcing her to look up into the cavernous ceiling. "Let him bleed out right here. Do you know what happens next, Elena? I will comfort him. When he returns from his trip, when he sees what 'happened' here, I will be the one holding his hand while he grieves."
Elena squeezed her eyes shut, fighting against the agonizing pull on her scalp. "He won't... he won't believe you..."
"He will believe whatever I tell him to believe!" Victoria barked, her voice snapping like a whip through the empty room. Her grip on Elena’s hair tightened, causing sharp pain to shoot down Elena’s neck. "Because Marcus needs me. His empire needs my father’s money. You are an expense, Elena. A temporary distraction. A mistake he made when he was bored!"
Victoria released her grip suddenly, shoving Elena’s head back down against the stone.
Elena’s cheek slammed against a small shard of glass, cutting a neat line along her cheekbone. Warm blood tickled her skin, mixing with her tears. She could feel her strength draining rapidly. The contractions were coming faster now, unrelenting waves of agony that twisted her lower back and made her vision dim around the edges.
She looked toward the grand double oak doors at the end of the dining room. They were shut tight, heavy and impenetrable. The estate staff had been dismissed hours ago by Victoria under the pretext of a private family dinner. The security guards were posted at the outer gates, half a mile down the winding cliffside drive.
There was no one coming. No one to hear her screams. No one to stop the woman in the red dress.
Victoria stood up slowly, smoothing the front of her velvet gown with chilling composure. She took a deep breath, her chest rising and falling, as if she were a stage actress preparing for her grand entrance.
Then, with frightening speed, Victoria altered her posture. She reached up with her own manicured hands and violently tore the delicate lace strap of her red gown. She racked her fingers down her own collarbone, leaving four bright red scratches across her pale skin. She grabbed a heavy silver wine goblet from the sideboard and slammed it against her own forehead, opening a small, bleeding cut right above her left eyebrow.
Elena watched in frozen horror as Victoria transformed herself in seconds from a cold-blooded attacker into a bruised, hysterical victim.
"What... what are you doing?" Elena whispered, terror choking her throat.
May you like
Victoria looked down at her, her eyes sparkling with manic, triumphant delight. Tears—real, streaming tears—began to pour down Victoria’s cheeks on command, smearing her makeup into jagged black tracks.
"I am surviving an attack, Elena," Victoria sobbed dramatically, her voice instantly shifting into a high-pitched, frantic wail. "I am defending myself against a crazy, hormonal woman who lost her mind and tried to kill me!"
