The rain soaked through my coat, but the fire under my skin kept me moving. I needed my papers. My passport, my birth certificate, and the deed records were inside the apartment I bought with five years of double shifts.
I climbed the stairs to the third floor. The front door was unlocked.
I pushed it open and froze.
The small living room was trashed. Empty champagne glasses sat on the coffee table. Bright orange Hermès boxes, silk ribbons, and glossy shopping bags were piled across the rug.
Soft giggles drifted from my bedroom.
I walked down the short hall and pushed the door open.
Bryce and Scottie were tangled in my sheets. *My* sheets. Scottie wore an expensive silk robe. Around her wrist was a thick, gleaming Cartier Love bracelet.
Bryce looked up. He didn't even flinch. He just leaned back against the headboard and smirked.
"You're back early," he said.
"Where is the money, Bryce?" My voice was completely flat. "The two hundred thousand from the apartment sale. Where is it?"
Bryce laughed. He reached for a champagne flute on the nightstand and took a slow sip. "Gone. Spent."
My chest went icy. "That was for Grandma's heart surgery. Mount Sinai needs the deposit today."
"Too bad," Bryce sneered. "We were married, Isla. That money was marital property. Half was mine anyway. Honestly, you owed me for eight years of dealing with your boring life. A man needs nice things."
Scottie stretched her long legs across my mattress, holding her wrist up to catch the light. "Learn to let go, honey. You were holding him back anyway."
A crumpled receipt lay on the dresser next to an embossed keycard envelope from The Langham.
*Cartier: $18,500. Hermès Fifth Avenue: $42,000. Luxury Suite: $12,000.*
I didn't yell. I didn't scream. I burned every number, every brand name, and every single cent into my memory.
Then, I turned around and walked out.
***
I took a cab straight to Midtown. The Langham Hotel.
If I could corner Bryce with the police before he settled into that suite, I could freeze the funds. I could get the cash back before Grandma went into cardiac arrest.
The elevator opened on the fourteenth floor. The hallway smelled like expensive lilies.
Bryce and Scottie were walking toward Room 1402. A bellhop was wheeling their luggage inside. Scottie slipped through the door, but Bryce lingered in the hallway, checking his watch.
I marched down the carpeted hall, pulled out my cracked phone, and dialed 911.
Bryce saw me. His eyes flared with sudden panic. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Reporting grand larceny," I said. "You stole two hundred thousand dollars."
Before the line connected, Bryce lunged.
His heavy hands slammed into my shoulders. He shoved me hard against the wall. The back of my head cracked against the wood molding, sending white spots across my vision.
"Give me that!" he hissed, twisting the phone out of my grip.
"Bryce! Give it back! She’s dying!" I clawed at his chest, kicking wildly at his legs.
He pinned both my wrists above my head with one arm. He was strong. Solid. There was not an ounce of weakness in his grip. For eight whole years, I had treated this man like fragile glass.
"You're not calling anyone," he whispered in my face. His breath smelled like mint and champagne. "You're just being dramatic. Like always. Completely unhinged."
"Let me go!" I choked out, tears finally burning my eyes. "Grandma is dying!"
"She's an old woman, Isla. People die," he said coldly.
He dragged me away from the elevators. Every time I tried to break toward the emergency stairs, he stepped in front of me. He crossed his arms and laughed. He mocked my clothes. He checked his watch over and over, deliberately killing time.
He kept me trapped in that hallway for forty-five agonizing minutes.
Finally, a hotel manager stepped out of a service pantry down the hall. Bryce looked away, distracted for a split second.
I didn't hesitate. I drove the heel of my boot straight down onto his foot. Bryce cursed, doubling over. I ripped my phone from his jacket pocket and bolted through the heavy stairwell door.
***
I ran down fourteen flights of concrete stairs. My lungs burned, but I didn't stop.
I burst onto Fifth Avenue, hurled myself into the back of a yellow cab, and slammed the door. "Mount Sinai! Step on it!"
The rain battered the windows like gravel. The digital clock on the dashboard blinked. *4:20 PM.*
*Hold on, Grandma. Please. Just hold on.*
When the cab screeched to the hospital curb, I tossed a crumpled bill at the driver and sprinted inside.
I took the stairs two at a time to the cardiac ward. The smell of bleach and antiseptic stung my nose.
I burst into Room 412.
The room was dead quiet.
There was no rhythmic beep of a heart monitor. No hissing oxygen line.
Just a single bed in the center of the room.
On the mattress lay a frail, motionless shape beneath a white sheet.
A young nurse was quietly untying an empty IV bag. She turned around, saw my drenched clothes and wild eyes, and her face softened with pity.
"Are you Isla?" she asked softly.
My voice caught in my throat. "Where is she? Where is my grandmother?"
The nurse looked down at the floor. "I'm so sorry. Her heart gave out. We tried everything, but... she passed about twenty minutes ago."
Twenty minutes.
While Bryce held me against the wall, laughing.
"She kept calling your name," the nurse added gently. "Until the very end."
My knees gave out. I hit the cold floor with a dull thud.
With shaking hands, I reached up and pulled the sheet back.
Grandma’s face was pale and still. When my fingers brushed her hand, it was ice-cold.
I pressed her frozen fingers against my burning cheek.
A raw, animal scream tore from my throat. It shattered against the sterile walls, emptying everything left inside me.
The foolish girl who had loved Bryce Dixon died right there on that floor.
And only vengeance remained.
