Chapter 1 - The Shattered GlassThe quiet hum of my home office was shattered at 3:15 PM by the thunderous sound of my front door being kicked off its heavy bronze latch.
I jumped up from my desk, my coffee cup tipping over, dark liquid soaking across my oak floorboards.
Kieran Abernathy stood in my entryway.
The polished, composed man who had smiled so politely at the courthouse five hours ago was completely gone. His charcoal suit jacket was unbuttoned, his silk tie loosened at his neck, his dark hair messy, and his eyes bloodshot, burning with a frantic, unhinged rage that made my stomach plunge into ice.
"Kieran?!" I gasped out, backing up against my desk, my hand instinctively reaching for my phone. "What the hell are you doing in my house?!"
He didn't answer with words. He strode across the living room in three heavy strides, kicked a glass coffee table out of his path, and slammed his broad hand flat against my desk.
"You revoked her card, Freya," Kieran growled, his voice a low, terrifying rasp that vibrated through the quiet room. "You actually went home from the courthouse and revoked my mother's black card."
"The divorce was finalized at 10:22 this morning, Kieran," I replied, forcing my voice to stay level despite the wild hammering of my heart. "I am no longer obligated to pay $40,000 a month for Constance's luxury shopping sprees. The card was linked to my personal account."
"My mother was at a charity auction at the Grand Hotel fifteen minutes ago!" Kieran roared, his face contorting into an ugly, mottled crimson. "Her card was declined in front of fifty people! In front of the board of directors! Do you have any idea how much embarrassment you caused her?!"
"She can use her own money, Kieran," I stated deadpan. "Or yours."
Kieran let out a bitter, venomous laugh. His eyes darted to my open laptop sitting on the desk—the screen still glowing with my personal banking portal and secondary cloud drives.
Before I could react, Kieran lunged forward, grabbed my custom aluminum laptop by its screen, and slammed it down flat against the edge of the mahogany desk with a sickening CRACK.
The glass display shattered into a web of white spiderwebs.
"Hey!" I screamed, taking a step forward.
Kieran didn't stop. He picked up the heavy brass desk lamp and brought it smashing down onto the keyboard once, twice, three times, until the aluminum casing was bent, wires sparking, the hard drive crushed into twisted scrap metal beneath his boots.
He kicked the destroyed pieces across the floor, panting heavy, sweat pouring down his forehead, looking at me with pure, unadulterated contempt.
"You should have let it go, Freya," Kieran whispered, leaning across the ruined desk, his face inches from mine. "You thought you were just cutting off a credit card. You thought you were being petty. You have no idea what you just did."
I looked at the shattered laptop on the floorboards. I looked at the sparks dying out near my shoes.
And then, slowly, a cold, calm, and terrifying smile touched my lips.
May you like
I looked straight into Kieran's bloodshot eyes.
"You're right, Kieran," I whispered softly, every word dropped like ice into deep water. "I didn't just cut off a credit card. And you just destroyed the only device that wasn't currently broadcasting your family's financial logs to the Federal Bureau of Investigation."
Related Stories
