Zara Powell had passed out from the pain, and when she finally came to, dusk had already fallen. She woke up to find herself stretched out on a hospital bed.
When she fluttered her eyes open, a news report was playing on the wall-mounted TV.
"This morning, Mr. Samir Powell, president of Powell Group, announced he is cutting all ties with Powell Enterprises and pulling every last cent of his investment. The move sparked a massive industry-wide boycott of Powell Enterprises, throwing the company into an unprecedented crisis..."
Zara sat bolt upright, a crippling wave of dizziness crashing over her.
Ailani Rivera was sitting right beside her bed, remote in hand, staring at her with a toxic mix of spite and glee. "How does this feel, seeing all this?"
Zara clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white. "How could you do this..."
"Ah, right," Ailani cut in smoothly, like she’d been waiting for the opening.
"You’ve been locked up for three days, so you’re probably totally out of the loop. That story broke three days ago. In those three days, your dad panicked so bad he got tangled up in some illegal fundraising scheme. He’s already behind bars."
Zara’s eyes turned blood red. She lunged at Ailani, screaming, "You’ve gone too far! I’ll kill you!"
Ailani effortlessly shoved the weakened Zara right back onto the mattress, then kept going, twisting the knife deeper.
"Don’t be so hasty—there’s more. With your dad in prison, Powell Enterprises went up in flames. Your mom panicked and ran straight out into the street… and got hit by a car. She’s still clinging to life here in the hospital, no one knows if she’ll pull through."
Zara bit her lip until it bleed, her heart splitting clean in two. She didn’t know where she found the strength, but she launched herself off the bed and wrapped her hand around Ailani’s throat.
"This is bullshit! Samir would never do this to me, he never would!"
Ailani only looked more pleased, pouring more gasoline on the fire. "Oh, he absolutely would. My brother’s dead, and Samir hates seeing me upset. So he ruined your whole family just to cheer me up."
"How do you sleep at night? How do you live with yourself!" Zara shook violently, her rage boiling over as she squeezed harder around Ailani’s neck. With her other hand, she ripped at Ailani’s hair hard enough to pull it out by the roots.
"Ailani, you witch! I’ll kill you right here! Don’t act like I don’t know what you did—you manipulated my unstable brother to come after me, you started all of this!"
Zara didn’t know Samir had called a few minutes earlier. Ailani had just muted the call on purpose, let him listen.
Ailani practically had a death wish, even choking she still gasped out more poison: "And about the engagement next week? Samir says it’s still on… just with me. He’s gonna take care of me for the rest of his life, step in for my brother, who was his best friend."
"I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you! Samir is mine! Ailani, you’ll never have him, never!"
*CRASH!*
A rough force suddenly wrenched Zara backward, slamming her hard into the floor. Pain exploded through every fiber of her body, sharp and searing.
It was Samir who’d pulled her off. Now he was gently helping Ailani back onto the chair beside the bed, brushing her off like she was spun glass. Once he was sure she was unhurt, his soft, worried expression melted straight into fury. He strode over to Zara, wrenched her chin up roughly in his grip.
"You asked for this, Zara. You finally showed your true fucking colors. Marry me? You think you’re even worthy of that?"
Marry me? You think you’re worthy? Worthy.
Zara stared blankly up at the man who looked ready to tear her apart, a bitter, crippling sadness swelling in her chest.
Once, he’d whispered to her, "Zara, I’m the luckiest man alive to get to marry you. I swear I’ll spend my whole life being loyal to you, trusting you, protecting you."
That vow still rang in her ears, now it was just hollow, painful noise.
Zara breathed out a soft, shaky sigh. The pain of his grip on her chin was nothing compared to the agony twisting her heart apart.
When she finally spoke, her voice was eerily calm. "Samir, I only have two questions. Once you answer them, I’ll accept whatever you decide to do with me."
He blinked once, his face quickly sliding back into that cold, unreadable mask, and said nothing.
Zara stared straight into his eyes, her voice so quiet it was almost a whisper. "Was it you that pushed my family to the edge? That put my father in jail, that got my mother hit by a car and left her fighting for her life?"
Ailani looked away, unable to hold Zara’s gaze. But Samir’s merciless voice rang out clear and cold: "Yes."
One word. Light as a feather, and it stabbed straight through Zara’s heart.
Haze began to cloud her empty, numb eyes.
Looking at him now was like staring at a total stranger, someone she’d never known at all. "They loved me, they raised me for almost twenty years. They did nothing wrong. I killed someone, I’m beyond saving, I deserve every punishment I get… but Samir. They did nothing wrong."
Her voice shook, stripped of all warmth.
She’d been wrong. So utterly, completely wrong.
She’d misjudged him, dragged her parents—who should have been enjoying their peaceful retirement—straight into a living hell.
Samir turned away in disgust, scoffing coldy. "Nothing wrong? Failing to raise a decent daughter is their fault. They raised someone as vicious as you. That’s failure enough."
Zara couldn’t help it. She laughed.
It got louder and louder, until it was almost hysterical, tears streaming down her face blurring everything she saw.
Samir looked away, disgusted by her little show.
The killer was her. The one who hid what she’d done was her. The one who betrayed him, slept with another man, was her!
What right did she have to feel wronged? What right did she have to play the victim?!
"Any more questions?" Samir snapped, impatient.
Zara finally stopped laughing. She looked up at him, and her eyes were completely empty of any expectation.
"No more. There’s no point."
From now on, whether Samir married Ailani or any other woman, it didn’t mean a thing to her anymore.
Samir stood up, waved a hand to call the men waiting by the door into the room.
"You’re done asking questions, aren’t you? Good. Take her to the psychiatric institution. Let her spend a year in there to ‘recover’."
A flicker of shock finally crossed Zara’s face. She slowly lifted her head to stare up at the man standing over her, in control of everything. "What did you say?"
He was going to lock her up like she was crazy? Throw her away to rot with the mentally ill? What about Powell Enterprises? What about her parents?
Samir wouldn’t even glance at her again. His voice was colder than ice. "You killed Watson Rivera. I’m not giving you another chance to hurt Ailani."
Two big bodyguards in black stepped forward to pin Zara’s arms behind her back.
Zara didn’t struggle. She knew fighting back was useless. Her voice cracked, raw with a despair she’d never felt before in her life.
"Samir. I, Zara Powell, swear on everything sacred to me—if my parents get out of this safe, I will never forgive you for as long as I live. If anything happens to them… I will come back for you one day. I will avenge them."
Samir’s fingers twitched slightly. Even as Zara was dragged out of the hospital room, he never looked back.
Whether it was because he didn’t want to. Or because he didn’t dare.
Zara was dragged out of the hospital, and her frantic, wild laughter echoed down the corridor, lingering long after she was gone, refusing to fade.
