"Back off, all of you! Don't you touch her!"
Irene Lambert raised her broom, trying to drive back the crowd pressing in around me, but Alex kicked her square in the chest.
"What are you yelling about?" he sneered. "Felicia and I were never married. She was never the lady of the Delgado house."
Irene's back slammed into the corner of a glass display case. The pain buckled her instantly.
Layla tugged at Alex's sleeve, pouring fuel on the fire from the sidelines.
"Since when does the help get a say? Felicia probably bullied her into calling her that the moment you left."
Alex's face darkened. He kicked Irene again. And again.
"A dog that can't recognize its master. You're fired, effective immediately."
I shoved through the crowd and pulled Irene to her feet.
Then I turned, fury churning behind my eyes.
"If you're that blind, Alex, go see an eye doctor. Irene doesn't even work for you."
Alex finally looked at Irene's face. Recognition flickered, but not a shred of remorse followed it. He glared at me, jaw tight.
"So that's your game. You swapped in your own people."
"If I don't teach you a lesson today, next thing I know you'll have the entire Delgado estate signed over to your name."
Layla glanced at her watch, then leaned in close to Alex's ear. Whatever she whispered, it put a cold, vicious gleam in her eyes.
A chill ran through me.
I cursed myself for leaving the hotel alone.
I pulled out my phone, ready to call Melvin for backup.
But before I could dial, a sharp pain tore through my wrist.
My phone clattered to the ground.
"Calling for reinforcements?" Alex wrenched my arm. "Keep dreaming."
He dragged me toward the elevator. Behind us, Layla smiled sweetly at the dispersing onlookers.
"Don't worry, we'll make sure this kidnapper learns her lesson."
"You should all get going, though. When the police arrive, you don't want to be caught up in it."
She tilted her head, voice dripping with false sympathy. "After all, hitting someone is wrong, no matter the reason."
The moment the words left her mouth, the crowd scattered like startled birds. A few people even called Alex and Layla heroes on their way out.
Amid the cheering, Irene and I were shoved into the hotel's walk-in freezer.
The cold hit like a wall of knives. My body seized, trembling violently before the door even shut behind us.
Years ago, when a group of men had cornered Alex in an alley, I hadn't thought twice. I threw myself in front of him and took a blade meant for his back. The wound cut deep enough to scrape bone. I nearly bled out. Six months in a hospital bed before I could stand on my own two feet again.
Ever since, cold weather turned my body into a map of pain. Every old wound screamed at the first hint of a chill.
I remembered Alex kneeling in front of me back then, eyes red and swollen, swearing he would keep me warm for the rest of my life. He wouldn't even let me open the refrigerator door at home. He drew my baths. He warmed my blankets. He did everything.
And now, the same man had locked me in a freezer because I was in his way.
My lips trembled. My voice came out cold and steady despite the shaking.
"Let me out, Alex. Right now. Or you'll regret it."
"I'm Melvin's—"
A slap cracked across my face before I could finish.
"Regret?" Alex scoffed. "I've never regretted a single thing in my life. But go ahead, try me."
He straightened his cuffs. "I've got a birthday gala to attend. I'm not wasting any more time on you."
"Stay here and think about what you've done."
The steel door slammed shut with a deafening clang.
I curled into myself on the freezing floor. The old scar tissue along my ribs and spine screamed, each pulse of cold dragging the pain deeper. My vision blurred at the edges, consciousness slipping like sand through numb fingers.
Beside me, Irene's cries for help grew fainter and fainter.
On the other side of the hotel, Alex walked into the gala with Layla on his arm.
The first thing he saw was Melvin, phone raised to his ear, his expression dark as a storm.
The dozen-odd business moguls gathered around Melvin didn't dare so much as breathe too loudly.
Seeing this, Alex stopped in his tracks, about to ask someone nearby what had happened.
That was when a flurry of frantic footsteps and a child's sobbing echoed from the entrance.
"Daddy! Daddy, help!"
