Chapter 55 Chapter 55
Tasha, confused and panicked, moved her hand from her mouth to her nose.
The second her fingers brushed it, her face contorted even more.
It was broken, and then the blood came.
At first it trickled, but within moments it was pouring down from her nose in an alarming stream, staining her fingers, dripping onto her clothes, and sending another wave of panic through everyone around her.
The sight of the blood seemed to break whatever composure she had left.
She gasped sharply, now fully aware of the severity of what had happened. The pain exploded across her face, and her knees almost buckled again.
People in the growing crowd recoiled in shock.
A few gasped audibly, some drew closer despite themselves.
Others covered their mouths.
The scene had gone from ugly confrontation to outright public scandal.
And Vincent already furious lost whatever little control he still had.
He lurched forward, pointing violently at Megan, his face dark with rage.
“You crazy bastard!” he shouted. “What the hell did you just do?”
His voice was loud enough to command the full attention of everyone nearby.
“Why would you hit her like that?” he bellowed. “Animal! You are an animal! That is what you are—a beast!”
His accusations poured out one after another, each one more vicious than the last.
“A beast without conscience!” he spat. “A wild creature! A wicked, senseless, evil woman!”
He was no longer choosing his words.
He was simply throwing every insult he could find.
“You have gotten yourself into a very big mess,” he said, almost shaking with anger. “And don’t even think anyone is going to save you this time. I will not save you. Nobody will save you.”
He jabbed a finger toward her.
“You are going in for this. You are going to pay for this.”
His mouth twisted with furious satisfaction as he added, “I knew it. I knew you were going to go back to jail. I knew it. You are going right back to that prison you came out of.”
Then, almost triumphantly, he said, “And now you’ve just confirmed it. You’ve confirmed it with your own hands. You are going back there.”
There was an almost frightening eagerness in his voice now, as if this moment was giving him the outcome he had secretly wanted all along.
“And I am happy,” he said cruelly, “that you are going back there. I’m happy about it, because you are an animal. How can you do this to another woman? To a fellow lady like you?”
His insults continued in a furious stream.
“You crazy imbecile!”
“You senseless bastard!”
“You violent lunatic!”
Deborah, regaining her voice now that the shock had turned into outrage again, stepped in with the same theatrical severity.
Then she began clapping slowly, not out of admiration, out of scorn.
Out of the terrible satisfaction of someone who believed a trap had just closed around another person.
“It is very obvious,” she said coldly, “that you do not understand what you have just gotten yourself into.”
Her words immediately deepened the silence around them.
“This…” she said, glancing at Tasha’s bleeding face, “this is not ordinary.”
She pointed at Megan.
“You have just assaulted the very last person you should have ever touched.”
Jessica quickly nodded in agreement, though she still looked shaken by the sight of Tasha’s injuries.
Deborah continued, now making sure the crowd around them could hear every word.
“Do you even know what is going to happen to you now?” she asked. “Do you?”
Then she gave a dry, almost mocking smile.
“Let me at least give you a hint,” she said. “This is General Zachariah’s family.”
She pointed toward Tasha.
“She is related to General Zachariah. In fact, it is because of General Zachariah that we are even here today.”
That statement rippled through the small crowd like a dropped stone through still water.
The reactions were immediate, a few people gasped.
Some exchanged startled looks.
Others instinctively stepped back as though the situation had suddenly become even more dangerous than it already was.
“And you,” Deborah said, with dramatic emphasis, “have just assaulted a member of General Zachariah’s family.”
Her voice sharpened.
“And you think you are going to walk away from that?”
The crowd’s murmuring intensified instantly.
“General Zachariah?”
“She’s related to General Zachariah?”
“Wow…”
“This lady is finished.”
People began whispering among themselves, and the name alone seemed to shift the weight of the entire moment. Megan was no longer simply a woman who had retaliated in anger. In the eyes of those listening, she had now become someone who had made the mistake of attacking a person protected by a far bigger and more dangerous circle.
One woman covered her mouth and muttered, “General Zachariah will never show her mercy.”
A man standing not far from the entrance leaned forward, lowering his voice, but not enough to keep others from hearing him.
“I once had the opportunity,” he said, “to speak with someone very close to General Zachariah.”
That immediately drew attention.
“And do you know what he told me?” the man continued. “He told me that General Zachariah is ruthless when it comes to his family. Ruthless.”
He shook his head slowly.
“He is extremely protective of them. That is why people don’t joke with them. Nobody just walks up and crosses that line. Everybody knows better than to get too close to them in the wrong way.”
Then his eyes settled on Megan.
“And this girl just assaulted one of them,” he said. “Just imagine.”
That only fed the tension further.
The crowd was no longer simply watching.
They were now anticipating, speculating.
Judging.
Some looked at Megan with pity.
Others with condemnation.
A few with the detached fascination people reserve for someone they believe has just destroyed their own future in public.
Then Vincent stepped closer again, seizing the moment, his anger now laced with grim certainty.
“You see?” he said to Megan, his voice low but cutting. “Do you hear what they just said?”
He held her gaze with open hostility.
“You are done for.”