Chapter 6 - The Second Strike
Victoria Bennett sneered, her red-painted lips curling back to reveal perfectly straight, predatory teeth.
"She doesn't belong here, Arthur!" Victoria shrieked, completely detached from social decorum or moral sanity.
"She is an insolent little leech, and I will not let her ruin my home or my standing!"
Clara flinched violently at the sound of the screech, burying her wet face deeper against Elena’s soaked apron.
Elena wrapped both arms securely around the young woman, positioning her own body as an organic shield.
Victoria’s eyes locked onto Clara huddled on the stones, and the sight of her survival seemed to snap the final thread of her control.
"Look at her, playing the pathetic victim!" Victoria hissed, her voice rising into an hysterical crescendo.
Before anyone could anticipate her next move, Victoria lunged forward off the fountain rim.
Her black high heels struck the wet terrace with sharp, aggressive clatter.
She bypassed Arthur in a blinding flash of crimson silk, her manicured fingers hooked into claws aimed straight for Clara.
She intended to tear the girl away from the maid, to finish the humiliation she had started in the fountain.
Elena braced herself over Clara, preparing to absorb the physical assault with her own body.
Arthur Bennett’s reflexes were faster than thought, born of pure primal instinct to protect his child.
His left hand shot out like an iron clamp, cutting through the air with terrifying speed.
Arthur’s fingers closed violently around Victoria’s right wrist in mid-strike, inches from Clara’s face.
The sudden deceleration jarred Victoria’s entire arm, stopping her dead in her tracks with bone-jarring finality.
Victoria gasped in shock, her eyes widening as she felt the crushing, immovable grip of her husband’s hand.
Arthur did not simply hold her; he squeezed with enough pressure to bruise the delicate bone beneath her skin.
His face was inches from hers, his gray eyes blazing with a darkness that terrified everyone watching.
"Don't you dare touch her," Arthur growled, his voice dropping into a low, murderous rumble that vibrated through her bones.
Victoria writhed, trying desperately to yank her arm free, but she was entirely powerless against his muscular strength.
"Arthur, let go of me! How dare you lay hands on me in front of these people!" she spat, venom spraying from her lips.
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Arthur didn't answer with words.
With a sharp, decisive wrench of his arm, he twisted her wrist outward and shoved her violently away from his daughter.
