re awe and intimidation. Helena felt neither. As she walked across the polished marble floor the n

ing ice, insisting Helena deliver it to Gaston in person. "A wife should support her husband during a crisis," she'd

low, dismissive once-over. "Name?" she asked, her tone implying He

I have a documen

le Helena stood in the center of the vast lobby, feeling the weight of a hundred curio

behind the reception desk flickered

lity in Nevada," a news anchor said, her face grim. "Violent clashes have erupted

re for support. She'd sent her as a message: I control everything. I control the board, I control t

leep, and the relentless psychological warfare was taking its toll. The towering lobby b

r the entrance. Shouts. The scree

a mask of rage. He was wild-eyed, frantic, and in his hand, he brandi

hat you did!" he screamed

ttered like frightened birds, their bri

emerged, flanked by a phalanx of executives, his head bent as he spoke urge

omment to the press. Get our

ommanding a battle on a distant front, obliv

of pure hatred ripped from his throa

s a man possessed, fueled by a righteous fur

feet away. Five

the years of cruelty against this single, b

s only i

n: a boy in the rain, shrugging off his coat, drap

ward arc, aimed directly at

e, placing her own small body between the man she w

breaking her. She was saving the boy who, once, had be

ep, piercing cold that plunged into her back, just below her left s

to a kaleidoscope of spinning lights and screaming faces

numb fingers, scattering pape

f confusion that morphed into sheer horror, dropped his pho

moving on pure reflex,

where, delivered a vicious kick to the man's chest, sending him sprawling. Security guards swar

d. People we

aw Gaston's face, close to hers, his eyes wide with a terror she had neve

across the crisp white of her blo

oded through her body in a white-hot wave. It was