The sounds from upstairs never stopped all night.
Again and again, in the throes of her pleasure, Tamara let slip truths I'd never heard before.
"Jarvis, I love you. These seven years, I never loved that broke loser. I never once actually planned to marry him..."
"Why stay with him for seven years? Because he's an idiot! He never touched me and still gave me money to spend. Look, he even gave us a huge wedding gift for our marriage! This house isn't much, but it cost that deadbeat every penny he had. Still worth a few million..."
When dawn broke, the master bedroom door swung open amid a tangle of cloying laughter.
But when I heard where those footsteps were heading, every drop of blood in my body rushed to my skull.
I couldn't care less that my body was already rubbed raw. Like a man possessed, I threw myself against the basement door until it gave way, then staggered and crawled to my foster father's memorial shrine.
The moment I saw what lay before me, the blood in my veins turned to ice.
My foster father's portrait had already been set ablaze with Jarvis's lighter. The fruit offerings that had once been arranged so neatly on the table had been devoured clean by the German shepherds his men had brought in. The incense burner lay toppled on the floor, surrounded by the shredded remains of the sutras my foster mother had painstakingly copied by hand. The whole room was in ruins.
Jarvis picked up a necklace from the table and dangled it in front of Tamara.
"What the hell is this thing?"
It was my foster father's ashes pendant. The only keepsake my foster mother had left to mourn him by.
"A necklace with ashes in it. Disgusting. Don't touch it!" Tamara glanced at the pendant with open contempt and flicked her wrist to throw it away.
I clenched my teeth, lunged to my feet, and dove for the pendant. I craned my neck up and clamped it between my teeth.
Jarvis saw this and kicked me over. I lost my balance and collapsed directly onto the still-burning portrait.
The licking flames swallowed my already-festering wounds in an instant. The smell of scorched flesh filled the air as searing, bone-deep pain tore through every nerve in my body.
"Who let this piece of trash in here?!"
Jarvis planted his foot on my head and ground down with all his weight.
"Spit that filthy thing out!"
A suffocating pressure exploded through my temple. I kept the pendant locked between my teeth, glared up at Jarvis with bloodshot eyes, and forced the words through my clenched jaw.
"You animal. You'll pay for this."
"Remember what I'm telling you. Everything you've done today, I will return to you a thousandfold."
"Return it to me? Keep dreaming!"
A vicious gleam surfaced in the depths of Jarvis's eyes. He raised his fist and brought it hammering down on my skull.
"You crossed the Farley heir. You'll never crawl out from under my heel."
When I still refused to let go, Jarvis reached in and started wrenching the pendant out with brute force. The metal chain shredded the inside of my mouth. Blood streamed from the corners of my lips in a steady flow.
But Jarvis had no intention of stopping.
Crack.
The sound of a tooth snapping. I bit down harder.
Jarvis's hands were slick with blood. His patience had run out. He kicked me aside, wiped the blood off on my clothes, then pulled out his phone and shoved the screen in my face.
"You piece of garbage. If you don't spit that filthy thing out, I'll show you exactly what the Farley heir is capable of."
The moment I saw what was on that screen, I froze as if struck by lightning.
On the surveillance feed, lying in an ICU bed, was my foster mother.
"You worthless dog. I'm counting to three. If you don't let go, that old woman dies today."
"Three..."
"Two..."
Jarvis rasped an order into the phone to whoever was on the other end.
