Chapter 3 - The Wall of Defiance
Eleanor had not moved away. She had not called for help. She had not shown a single flicker of remorse.
Instead, the matriarch had stepped directly to the water’s edge. Her ruined dress clung to her, the raspberry stain looking more like fresh gore in the underwater LED glare. Her face was twisted into an expression of pure, unadulterated psychopathy.
As Lucas stood there, chest heaving, holding the coughing toddler, Eleanor leaned down over the coping. She raised her manicured hand, her long, sharp diamond rings glinting dangerously under the chandelier lights, and lunged forward toward Lily’s face.
"Give her to me!" Eleanor hissed, her voice vibrating with manic hatred. "Look what she did! She did it on purpose! That little wretch ruined my gown! Give her here, Lucas, or I swear to God I will finish what I started—"
"Back the fuck up!" Lucas roared, his voice thunderous enough to shake the champagne towers across the terrace.
Before her claw-like fingers could touch Lily’s wet skin, Lucas shifted the shivering child to his left hip and thrust his massive right forearm out like an iron gate, slamming it against Eleanor’s shins. The impact nearly knocked the older woman off her high-heeled balance, forcing her to stumble back two paces.
Lucas stepped fully out of the water, water cascading off him onto the stone tiles. He placed himself directly between his mother and the toddler, his broad shoulders completely blotting out the matriarch.
"Touch her again, Mother," Lucas warned, his voice dropping to a low, lethal baritone that carried over the dead-silent crowd, "and I won’t give a damn about who gave birth to me. You stay back!"
"How dare you raise your voice to me in my own house?!" Eleanor shrieked, clutching her stained silk, oblivious to the horrified gasps of the society elites watching from the perimeter. "She is a brat! She is an embarrassment to this family! She deserves far worse than a bath!"
She took another aggressive step forward, raising her hand to slap Lucas aside, her eyes manic and unstoppable. She truly believed her wealth and authority made her untouchable.
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She was wrong.
***
