The pounding on the door hadn't stopped, and in an instant the whole room fell silent.
Surprise and curiosity flickered across every face.
But inside me, a thread of hope flared to life.
That voice…
It was my eldest brother Dudley Hughes's right-hand man. He'd come to save us!
"I'm in here! Hurry, get inside! Save Terry, please!"
I screamed until my voice cracked and split.
Diana only curled her lip in irritation.
"Hmph. Bold. Let's see exactly who dares to ruin Diana Pruitt's evening!"
She snatched up a walkie-talkie and barked into it.
"All security, move out! I want every one of them outside taken down. Break their arms and legs!"
"Drop every gate. Not even a fly gets out!"
As her words faded, the heavy steel gates around the ballroom slammed down on all sides.
The sounds of the fight outside cut off in an instant, muffled to nothing.
I threw myself at the door like a madwoman, beating on the cold steel with everything I had.
Bang! Bang, bang, Bang! Blow after blow, my palms torn to raw flesh, and I felt none of it.
"Open the door! We're in here! Terry's dying, come save him!"
But no matter how I pounded, nothing moved on the other side.
Diana seized me by the collar from behind, looked at me with vicious glee, and threw me to the floor.
I hit the ground with a heavy thud.
So this last hope was gone too?
"Go on, scream. Why aren't you screaming anymore? Keep banging on the door. Let's see if your dear brother comes to save you."
She drove her foot into my chest, and I felt no pain, only stared at Terry beside me, his face gone blue.
He lay motionless on the floor, barely breathing.
"Regret it now? Look at the state of him. This is all your doing!"
"If you'd just knelt for me sooner, would he be dying like this?"
My nails nearly dug into my own flesh, tears blurring everything, and there was nothing I could do.
All I could manage was a wretched laugh.
"I, Marjorie Hughes, swear it. Your entire Pruitt family will go into the grave with Terry!"
"Diana Pruitt, you just wait!"
Diana threw back her head and laughed, contempt all over her face.
"Into the grave? You? A little homewrecker like you? Ha, what a joke!"
The words were barely out when a guard hurried over and murmured something to her.
Diana's eyes lit up.
"Ferdinand Gilbert's here!"
She thought it ruined me, but it set hope blazing in my chest again.
Ferdinand had come!
If he'd just back me up, the misunderstanding would be cleared, and Terry could be treated at once.
Ferdinand walked in, polished and refined in his suit.
Diana hurried to him, clinging to his arm, sobbing out a list of my "crimes."
Ferdinand lowered his gaze and gave me one glance.
I dragged my aching body across the floor to him and grabbed at his trousers.
"Mr. Gilbert, please, tell everyone the truth. The woman in that photo isn't me. I don't even know you!"
But Ferdinand only frowned, something sly crossing his face.
He didn't tell the truth. Instead he put on a tone of pity.
"Miss Hughes, I told you before to stop chasing after me. Why have you made a scene all the way here?"
"You—"
My mind went blank with a roar, and ice ran through me, as if I'd been thrown into a freezer.
"You're lying! I don't know you at all!"
Ferdinand shrugged, wrapping an arm around Diana, the picture of righteousness.
"Diana, she's the one who's been chasing me. I have no interest in her whatsoever!"
"You animal!"
Rage shook through me as I lunged at him.
Diana's foot slammed into my stomach. The pain doubled me over on the floor, my whole body trembling.
"Hmph. Drag this sickly thing into the storage room out back!"
She pointed at Terry and ordered the guards.
My head whipped around toward the storage room. It was barely a hundred square feet, dark year-round, no lights.
Terry was claustrophobic. That place would kill him.
"No, don't! That'll finish him off! Please, let him go!"
I shrieked, but no one paid me any mind.
As the guards dragged Terry toward the storage room, I heard the monitor on him let out a shrill alarm.
The instant they neared that cold, black room, his body began convulsing wildly.
"Terry!"
I clawed my way toward him, and Diana cracked me across the face, twice.
My cheek swelled at once, blood at the corner of my mouth.
"You filthy whore!"
"This first slap, for not knowing your place as a wife, throwing yourself at men everywhere!"
"This second slap, to teach you what a lowly thing you really are!"
She snatched a fruit knife from a waiter and swung it at my face.
"You think you can flaunt that pretty face all over town?"
"Tonight I'll cut it to ribbons. Let's see how you whore yourself out after that!"
The fruit knife touched my face, cold as ice, and I flinched without thinking.
Just as the tip was about to split my skin, there came an enormous crash.
Boom!
The brutally solid steel gate of the ballroom was torn open from the outside, ripped into a gaping hole!
A man's voice, carrying every ounce of danger, rang out through the whole room.
"Let's see who dares lay a finger on my sister!"
