Chapter 126 Chapter 126
Sophia’s POV
I didn’t care that my father was standing right there. Didn’t care if he saw it as disrespect or insubordination. I wanted to teach Hailey a lesson she’d never forget.
That slap had felt good. Satisfying. The sound of it, the shock on her face, the way she’d started to fall…..
But what I didn’t expect was the entourage behind me.
Before Hailey could even stand on her feet to fight back, before she could recover from my slap, I felt something hard connect with my own face.
A sound, deafening slap that made my ears ring and sent me stumbling backward.
Then another. And another.
I hit the ground hard, my vision blurring, and felt more blows raining down on me. Slaps, punches, hands grabbing my hair and yanking.
Benita had jumped to Hailey’s defense, completely ignoring the fact that she was beating me in my father’s presence. She was screaming something I couldn’t make out through the ringing in my ears, her hands striking me over and over.
“You bitch! You evil bitch!” Benita’s voice finally broke through. “You think you can hit a pregnant woman? No. You are just a foolish murder, you deserve every cruelty on this world.”
I tried to protect my face, tried to fight back, but then Hailey was there too, recovered from my slap and joining in the attack.
Her hands grabbed my arms, holding me down while Benita continued hitting me.
And then Barbara was there as well, slapping at my face and shoulders, the three of them working together to beat me into the ground.
“Stop! Get off!” I screamed, but they didn’t listen.
“How dare you touch my daughter!” Barbara was shouting. “How dare you put your hands on her! You stupid spoilt brat.”
I felt my lip split, tasted blood in my mouth. One of them caught me near my eye and I felt it starting to swell immediately.
“ENOUGH!” My father’s voice roared through the chaos, but the women didn’t stop.
It took Louis and Lorenzo physically pulling them off me to break up the fight. Louis grabbed Benita, who was still trying to claw her way back to me, while Lorenzo held Barbara and Hailey back.
I lay on the floor, breathing hard, pain radiating through my face and body. My hair was a mess, half pulled out. My face felt like it was on fire.
“WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU?” my father yelled, his voice shaking the room.
“Control your child, Damien!” Barbara shot back, not backing down despite Lorenzo’s restraining hands. “She just assaulted my pregnant daughter! She could have hurt the baby! Who the fuck do she think she is?” Her voice roared in rage.
“She called me names!” I protested from the floor, trying to sit up. “She said terrible things about my mother!”
“Because you’re trying to frame her for theft!” Benita screamed, still struggling against Louis’s grip. “You lying, manipulative little bitch….”
“I want my necklace back!” I shouted, finally managing to get to my feet despite the pain. “It’s one of a kind! Irreplaceable! And she took it!”
“I didn’t take anything!” Hailey insisted.
“I want my Marco back as well!” Benita voice tore through the room, breathing hard “Can you give Marco back? And did you know what else was one of a kind?” Benita said, her voice suddenly dropping to something cold and deadly. She stopped struggling against Louis and just stared at me with pure hatred. “Marco. Marco was one of a kind. Worth more than any necklace, worth more than any piece of jewelry. But you took him from me regardless.”
Her words hit like a physical blow.
“And you think,” Benita continued, her voice shaking with emotion, “that calling Hailey a thief and slapping her was going to go unpunished? That we were just going to stand here and let you attack her? No, I will make sure to drawn the world map to your body by all means!”
“She’s carrying my grandchild,” Barbara added, her voice hard. “You raised your hand to a pregnant woman. What kind of monster does that? Killing 19 people isn’t enlightening, now your plan is to kill a pregnant woman?”
“She deserved it!” I shouted. “She stole from me! She violated my mother’s memory!”
“You have no proof she took anything,” Lorenzo said, still holding Barbara back. “You can’t just accuse people and attack them without evidence.”
“I don’t need proof!” I insisted. “I know she took it! Who else could have?”
My father suddenly growled,an actual animalistic sound of rage that made everyone in the room freeze and fall silent.
We all turned to look at him. His face was red with fury, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, his whole body vibrating with barely controlled anger.
“ENOUGH!” he roared again. “All of you! This stops NOW!”
The room fell into complete silence except for the sound of heavy breathing.
My father looked around at all of us, me on the ground bleeding, Hailey being held back by Lorenzo, Benita restrained by Louis, Barbara standing ready to fight again at a moment’s notice.
“This is my house,” my father said, his voice dropping to something low and dangerous. “And I will not tolerate this behavior. From ANY of you.”
He turned his gaze specifically on me, and I saw something in his eyes that made me want to shrink back.
“Sophia,” he said, his voice like ice. “How much do you think that necklace was worth?”
The question caught me off guard. “What?”