aide

ar. "Don't you ever try to come between us again, Adel

burning a hole through the paper, through my skin, straight into my soul. It was the ultimate mockery. My five-year marriage, a

chatter of the auction hall blurring into a nauseating haze. I was st

ed through the speakers, follow

CUATE THE BUILDING IMMEDIA

g mob. Someone slammed into my injured shoulder, and I cried out, stagge

with a sickening crack. The di

hriek from somewhere nearby

ready been moving toward the exit, whip around. His face was

for C

hest. I was on the floor too. Hurt. In danger. Would

, not even registering my presence, as if I were a piece of discarded furniture.

hrough the din. He barked orders at his bodyguar

innamon, lifting him to his feet and hustling him toward the exit. Alonzo stayed right by his

look at me

his expensive leather s

raw, desperate cry. But it was swallowed by th

mell of smoke was getting stronger. A horrifying thought seized me: I was going to die here. Trampled to death i

he smoky haze,

e was com

stupid, stubborn hope. He cam

people, his eyes scanning the floor with fr

e. I tried to lift my han

reaching out. My brea

ot around my arm, but around something smal

gaudy, crystal-encrusted thing that mu

d. He straightened up, gave the clutch a prot

eaving m

lding, risking his life, not for hi

that it felt like the floor had dropped out from beneath me. The last f

h less tha

ght of my own worthlessness-it all co

right lights of a hospital ceiling rushing past

ns, and a fractured fibula. We need to g

g room. A strange sense of detachment was

le doors of the OR, two of Alonzo's

said, his voice flat

st. "What are you doing? This

ing her to Mr. Taylor

critically injured!"

pped forward, grabbed the side of my gurney, and

m floor with a scream of agony as

ed in horror. "What are yo

ead lolling back, my broken leg dragging uselessly behind me,

humiliation. I was being dragged, bleeding and broken, throu

suite. They didn't put me on the empty bed. They th

am, but I co

bed, propped up by a mountain of fluffy pillows, was Cinnam