I knew they were done talking. Now they were going to take her by force.
The next moment, a few male orderlies started toward me.
The one in front had to be six foot three. He didn't look like an orderly at all. He looked like muscle for hire.
He came straight at me, cursing as he reached. "Let go of her, damn you, or I'll beat you to death!"
"Screw you!"
I roared it and drove the fruit knife straight at his throat.
He flinched on instinct, and the blade sank into the base of his neck.
He screamed, staggering backward, blood pouring down.
The others saw it and pulled back too.
Two orderlies grabbed the wounded one and hauled him out of the room.
I leveled the bloody knife at all of them. "Daisy is my daughter. Anyone who touches her, I kill. If you don't believe me, come try."
Daisy was crying now, clinging to me tighter, saying over and over, "Daddy, I'm scared, they're all bad people, Mommy's a bad person too!"
"That's right, they're all bad people."
"But you don't have to be scared, sweetie, because Daddy is going to kill every last one of them."
I stared them all down.
Alma shouted, "Jacob, you stabbed a man. You think I won't call the police and have you arrested?"
"You'd really call the police?"
I let out a cold laugh. "What you're doing is a crime. You'd actually call the cops?"
Alma knew she couldn't get through to me, so she turned to Daisy.
"Daisy, I'm your mother. You won't listen to me?"
"Look at your father, hurting people with a knife. Only bad people do that."
"But what Mommy wants you to do is save your little cousin. That's a good thing."
"You want to be a good girl, don't you? Not a bad one."
Alma was sure she could fool her.
Instead, Daisy wiped her tears, her small face set with a seriousness far beyond her years.
"Daddy is good. Daddy is protecting me."
"Mommy is bad, because Mommy wants to hurt me."
"And Mommy never loved me. Mommy loves Harvey more."
"Grandma and Grandpa bought me LEGO sets, and Mommy took them and gave them to Harvey in secret."
"And the birthday money Grandma and Grandpa gave me, Mommy gave that to Harvey too. I saw it!"
Alma hadn't expected that. Humiliated in front of everyone, her rage boiled over.
"You little wretch, is that how you talk to your mother?"
"Don't you get it? You're worthless, a drain on this family. You don't deserve LEGO, and you don't deserve a cent of that money!"
I was about to lunge across the room and drive the knife through this vicious woman when the door to the room burst open.
Four men in security uniforms rushed in. I looked closer. They were my own company's security team.
I asked, startled, "How are you here?"
"Mr. Fox, after you called and didn't say anything, we heard the arguing on the line. We tracked your location and came straight over."
The guard drew his baton, shoved through the crowd, and closed around me and Daisy.
I carried Daisy toward the door, my eyes fixed on every last one of the Pruitts.
Alma screamed after me, "Jacob, you can walk out of here, but that little wretch's kidney still belongs to Harvey! I'll divorce you and take custody. Just you wait!"
I stopped in the doorway and looked back at them, cold. "I forgot to mention. I'm worth a billion dollars now. With the money and the connections I have, there are more ways than you can count to make you wish you were dead."
