Chapter 2

"Mom..." Dawn had heard me being hit. Her voice came out faint and frantic, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.

I thrashed like a woman possessed, tears and blood dripping onto the floor, and begged the crowd. "Please... somebody call an ambulance..."

The same people who'd been chattering a moment ago now stepped back, as if my daughter and I were something filthy.

My heart sank. I snapped my head up, and my eyes must have been terrifying. "Listen to me. I don't care whose wife you are! If anything happens to my daughter, every single person standing here pays for it. Not one of you walks away!"

The guards flinched at the look on my face, and their grip loosened.

I wrenched free and dialed.

"Nathan, get over here now. Bring people. They touched my daughter. Bring the best medical team you can find! And freeze every one of Yale's cards!"

A chair crashed over on the other end of the line. "Boss, ten minutes."

Before I could say more, Eden kicked the phone out of my hand.

"You don't know when to quit!"

She barked at the guards. "What, do you all want to lose your jobs?"

The guards lunged again, and my face was ground into the freezing tile.

Eden's stiletto heel came down on the back of my hand and twisted. The pain was so sharp that a cold sweat broke over me.

She bent down to my ear, her voice dripping with arrogance. "You? Who could someone like you possibly call? Today I'll show you what real power looks like!"

She grabbed her daughter's hand. "Brie, hit her! Keep hitting her until she's on her knees begging. In this city, we're the law!"

"Trash like you doesn't deserve the same bow as mine!" The girl giggled shrilly and drove her foot into my daughter's chest.

Another slap cracked across my face. My ears rang, and bloody foam ran down from the corner of my mouth.

Slap after slap came down. Soon my left eye had swollen shut.

Someone in the crowd looked pained and started forward, but a friend yanked him back. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? That's the Sterlings!"

Then someone shoved through the crowd. "Stop!"

Nathan thrust his phone's camera right into Eden's face.

"Ms. Reyes, your daughter pushed that child off the platform on purpose. I have the whole thing on video!"

Eden rolled her eyes. "And who are you supposed to be? You think this is any of your business?"

Nathan calmly held up his credentials.

"I'm the Chief Legal Officer of Dawnfrost Group. As of a few minutes ago, your daughter has committed attempted murder, you incited the assault, and the organizers are accomplices."

"I don't care who you are. No one is above the law!"

Nathan's face lit up when he spotted me. I rushed to ask, "Where are they? The people I told you to bring?!"

He looked uneasy. "Boss... Mr. Sterling blocked every one of them."

He pulled up a video on his phone. "Mr. Sterling asked me to... pass along a message."

Then he hit play.

On the screen, Yale's brow was furrowed. "Savannah, what game are you playing now? You and Dawn are at a competition. How would she end up with needles through her hands and take a fall?"

An assistant's fawning voice came from off-camera. "Mr. Sterling, look. Your wife just put up a new Instagram post. Dawn's right there on stage, playing..."

Yale exploded. "To get my attention, you'd drag our own daughter into it? She's that young, and you've already taught her to lie right along with you?"

His eyes were full of disgust. "Get yourself home. Stop embarrassing yourself out there!"