Chapter 6 - The Cold Awakening
Evelyn watched her daughter groveling amidst the overturned velvet chairs, and for the first time in sixty years, absolute dread paralyzed her heart.
She tried to stand, but the shattered glass from the fallen picture frames crunched warningly beneath the soles of her shoes.
Her champagne-gold gown was spattered with grime, and her perfectly sculpted hair was ruined by sweat and terror.
She looked at Julian, expecting him to deliver another strike, but the young man didn't even glance in her direction.
Julian was already on his knees, his broad back forming an impenetrable wall between Clara and the rest of the room.
His large, trembling hands reached out, gently cradling his sister’s tear-stained face in his palms.
Clara looked up at him, her hazel eyes red and swollen, her lower lip quivering uncontrollably.
A bright red welt had fully formed on her left cheek where Victoria’s hand had landed, contrasting sharply with her pale skin.
Around her neck, the faint, bruised impression of the leather pet collar was clearly visible beneath the chandelier light.
"I've got you, Clara," Julian whispered, his voice cracking with an intense, raw tenderness that broke the room's tension.
"I've got you. Nobody is ever going to touch you again. Not in this house. Not anywhere."
Clara let out a ragged, suffocating sob and buried her face into the collar of his black dress shirt.
Her slender arms wrapped around his neck, holding on with the desperation of a person pulled from a churning sea.
Julian wrapped his powerful arms around her shoulders, lifting her bodily from the freezing marble floor as if she weighed nothing.
As he hoisted Clara to her feet, his eyes swept downward toward the floor near the shattered display shelf.
There, lying face-up amidst the broken glass of their mother’s portrait, was Evelyn’s gold smartphone.
The screen was illuminated brightly against the dim floor, showing the live recording interface still actively running.
Julian held his sister securely against his side with his left arm, keeping her protected against his chest.
He took two measured steps toward the display shelf, the heels of his leather shoes grinding glass fragments to fine powder.
Evelyn shrank back against the wall, pulling her designer skirt away from him as if he were an oncoming train.
Julian bent down smoothly and picked the expensive phone up from the debris with two fingers.
May you like
His thumb brushed across the screen, stopping the recording that had been running continuously since before the first blow was struck.
The room held its breath, thirty guests leaning forward in morbid fascination as the true nature of the evening began to pivot.
