Chapter 3: The Execution of the Contract
"G-Gabriel...?" Rebecca whispered, her voice dropping into a pathetic, trembling crawl as she backed away toward the white rose bushes. "He... he is your father? But... you told the media your family passed away in poverty... you said you were an orphan..."
"I said I came from nothing, Rebecca," Gabriel said, slowly standing up to his full, imposing height as he lifted Mateo securely into his arms, wrapping his own warm wool suit jacket around the older man's shivering shoulders. When Gabriel turned to look at his fiancée, his eyes were no longer the eyes of a loving partner; they were the eyes of a cold, lethal executioner.
"My father stayed in the shadows because he didn't want the toxic, predatory parasites of your world to look down on him or use him to get to my treasury," Gabriel hissed, his voice echoing with absolute authority. "He wanted me to find a woman who loved me for who I am, not for the name on my corporate buildings. He came here today to surprise us, to bless our upcoming wedding with the very food that funded my college tuition."
Gabriel pulled his encrypted smartphone from his pocket, his fingers typing an emergency directive directly to his chief global counsel and the head of private estate security.
"The engagement is permanently nullified, Rebecca," Gabriel announced, his words cutting through her white designer dress like an iron gavel. "And your family's entire real estate agency is officially blacklisted from the Vanguard Global Network. By 5:00 p.m., every single line of commercial credit your father relies on will be permanently revoked."
"Gabriel, please! It was an accident! I didn't know!" Rebecca screamed, dropping to her knees on the cobblestones, her fingernails scratching at the stone as she desperately tried to grab the hem of his trousers. "I was just trying to protect your property! I love you! You can't ruin my family over a misunderstanding!"
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"It wasn't a misunderstanding, Rebecca. It was a revelation of your soul," Gabriel said, his face entirely devoid of empathy. He looked toward the three large security guards who had just run down the driveway. "Take this trash off my property. If she ever sets foot within a five-mile radius of my father again, file the aggravated trespassing warrants immediately."
The guards didn't hesitate. They firmly grabbed Rebecca by her arms, dragging her screaming, sobbing form down the imported European cobblestone driveway, her white designer dress getting smeared with the yellow paste of the very corn she had arrogantly crushed moments before. The illusion of her supremacy had been shattered into absolute, permanent doom.
