Chapter 151 Breaking point
Third Person POV
“Just who do you think you are, Melissa?”
Sophia’s voice was shrill. Rising with each word.
She walked closer. The gun was steady in her hand now. Her other hand clutching the crimson mantle.
“Look around you! I am the one with the power! I am Gavin’s fucking WIFE!” She gestured wildly at the hall. At the guards. At the throne. “I own this world! I own HIM! I own EVERYTHING!”
Kane moved immediately. Positioned himself between Melissa and Sophia.
But Melissa’s good hand shot out grabbing his arm, she held him back.
“No,” she said quietly.
Kane looked at her. “Melissa…”
“No.” Her voice was firm. “This is mine.”
She stepped around him and limped forward.
Her broken arm throbbed with every step. Her body screamed for rest. For medical attention. For anything other than this.
But she kept moving and stopped directly in front of Sophia.
She looked her dead in the eyes.
“You are just a pathetic, sad fuck,” Melissa said. Her voice was calm. Almost gentle. “A miserable girl playing dress-up in a dead man’s clothes.”
Sophia’s eyes widened.
“You don’t…”
Melissa’s good hand came up and slapped her hard across the face.
The sound cracked through the hall like a gunshot.
Sophia’s head snapped to the side. The force of the blow sent her stumbling backward.
Her heel caught on Gavin’s blood still pooled on the marble floor.
She slipped.
Arms windmilling. The mantle flying off her shoulders.
And she fell and hit the floor hard. The gun skittered from her grip and slid across bloody marble.
The entire hall went silent.
Absolutely silent. No one moved. No one breathed.
The mad queen had fallen.
And Melissa Hayes…broken arm, battered body,looking exhausted beyond measure…stood over her.
“How dare you,” Sophia gasped. “How DARE YOU!”
She scrambled for the gun. Her hand reached for it but Kane moved like lightning. His foot came down hard and he kicked the gun away before her fingers could close around it.
It spun across the floor. Out of reach.
Sophia looked up at Melissa. At the woman she’d tortured and she saw no fear in those eyes.
Only rage. A righteous burning rage.
Melissa dropped to her knees. Straddling Sophia. Pinning her to the blood-slicked floor.
“This is for Aria,” Melissa said.
Her good hand came down. Open-palmed. Connected with Sophia’s face.
Slap.
“This is for Gavin.”
Slap.
“This is for my father.”
Slap.
“This is for every person you’ve hurt.”
Slap.
“Every life you’ve destroyed.”
Slap.
Tears were streaming down Melissa’s face now. But she didn’t stop.
Just kept hitting. Kept unleashing months of fear and pain and trauma onto the woman who’d caused so much of it.
Sophia tried to fight back, she tried to throw Melissa off.
But Melissa was beyond caring about pain. About consequences. About anything except making this woman feel even a fraction of what she’d caused.
“STOP HER!” Sophia screamed. “Someone STOP HER!”
The guards didn’t move. They just watched.
Some of them looked almost… satisfied.
Then Jason moved. He barreled into Kane from the side catching him off-guard as they went down in a tangle of limbs.
“Get her off!” Sophia shrieked at Jason. “GET HER OFF ME!”
Jason didn’t respond. Just kept Kane pinned. His face was blank. Unreadable.
Was he helping Sophia?
Or was he just keeping Kane from interfering?
It was impossible to tell.
Sophia managed to get one arm free and she swung wildly. Her fist connected with Melissa’s broken arm.
Pain exploded white-hot through Melissa’s entire body. She gasped and fell to the side.
Sophia scrambled out from under her. Breathing hard. Her face was already swelling from the repeated blows.
She looked around wildly and saw the gun. She didn’t waste any time in reaching for it.
Melissa tried to get up. But she was way too slow.
Sophia’s fingers closed around the weapon. She rolled onto her back. Brought the gun up.
Pointed it.
Her face was a mask of blood and rage and madness.
“You should have stayed down,” she said.
Her finger tightened on the trigger.
The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed space.
——
The gunshot echoed through the hall.A scream followed immediately. But it was not Melissa’s scream.
It was Sophia's scream instead.
Her hand was bent at an impossible angle. Her fingers were twisted. The gun clattering to the floor.
Everyone’s eyes snapped to the figure standing behind her.
Gavin.
He’d risen from his pool of blood like he resurrected. Moving on instinct and in desperation. On pure force of will.
His hand was locked around Sophia’s wrist. He’d twisted it at the last second…just as she’d pulled the trigger…forcing the barrel away from Melissa.
The bullet had gone wide and buried itself in a marble column.
And Sophia’s hand…
The force Gavin had used was brutal. Her fingers were broken. Bent backward at angles that made several people in the hall turn away. One looked close to falling off.
Gavin yanked the gun from her useless grip and threw it across the hall.
It skidded into darkness.
“You…” Sophia gasped. Her face was white with pain. “You were supposed to be…”
“Dead?” Gavin’s voice was rough and weak from blood loss. But steady. “Not yet.”
He released her wrist. She stumbled backward, cradling her destroyed hand against her chest.
Across the hall, Kane shoved Jason off him. Hard.
His fist connected with Jason’s jaw. Jason’s head snapped back but he didn’t fight, he just let himself be pushed away.
Kane scrambled to his feet and ran to Aria.
She was lying on the floor where Jason had dropped her. Unconscious. Blood matting her hair. Her face was swollen almost beyond recognition.
“No, no, no,” Kane muttered. He dropped to his knees beside her. His hands shook as he reached for her throat. Checking for a pulse.
Please. Please. Please.
He felt a faint pulse. It was very faint but it was there.
She was breathing.
“Aria,” he whispered. And gathered her carefully into his arms. Cradleddling her against his chest. “I’ve got you. I’m here. You’re safe now.”
Her head lolled against his shoulder. Still unconscious.
But alive.
Relief flooded through Kane so intensely his vision blurred with tears.
Gavin turned to face the hall. To face the guards who were still watching. Still waiting for orders.
“This foolishness ends now,” he said.