Chapter 2
Metal clicked shut around Ethan’s wrists, the sharp sound echoing off the polished marble floors of the estate.
Clara took a slow, deep breath, smoothing down her emerald green dress over her swelling belly.
The tears in her eyes dried into a cold, unbreakable resolve as she looked at her trapped husband.
"Clara, baby, tell them it was an accident!" Ethan begged, his eyes wide with desperate terror.
"I didn't mean to hit you! I was just stressed about the quarterly financial audit!"
Clara stepped closer to her father, wrapping her trembling arm through Arthur's strong suit arm.
"It was no accident, Ethan," Clara said, her voice dropping into a razor-sharp whisper.
"You've been physically and emotionally abusing me for six months because you thought my father had disowned me."
"You thought I was helpless, but you forgot who I really am."
Evelyn stumbled back against the fireplace mantel, knocking the small American flag slightly askew.
"You tricked us!" Evelyn hissed, her eyes glaring at Clara with bitter malice.
"You pretended your trust fund was revoked so you could spy on our family operations!"
Arthur patted Clara's hand gently before turning his full wrath onto the trembling older woman.
"She didn't trick you, Evelyn," Arthur declared calmly.
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"I staged her disinheritance to see if your son married my daughter for love or for my money."
"And you both proved yourselves to be ruthless, violent parasites."
