Lavinia wrenched free from the nurse and stumbled forward, collapsing to her knees at my feet.
"Sister! Please! It hurts so much!"
"Save me, and the position of Mrs. Delgado is yours again!"
She wept with picture-perfect fragility, tears rolling like rain off a pear blossom, drawing stares and whispers from every direction.
Josephine's gaze slid past me to Melody standing behind me. Something vicious twisted across her face.
"So you'd rather die than stay, and now I see why. You ran off to be some man's mistress! You've even got his little bastard!"
"Come with me! Call your man out here. I want to see who has the gall to touch a Henson daughter!"
She lunged for Melody.
"Don't touch my mommy!" Melody swung her cane and cracked it hard against Josephine's shin.
"You little brat!" Josephine yelped, hopping on one foot, and raised her hand to strike.
Ice flooded my veins. I drove my foot into Josephine's knee.
She screamed, both knees slamming into the floor, and crumpled in a rigid kneel right in front of Melody.
"You're dead!" Murray clenched his fist and swung at me.
A long, powerful hand shot out from the side and locked around Murray's wrist like a vise.
Then wrenched it backward.
Crack.
The sickening snap of bone.
Murray shrieked, collapsing to his knees, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Ivan Stephens stood in front of me in a black suit, his expression carved from frost. He drew a handkerchief from his breast pocket, wiped his fingers with deliberate slowness, and tossed it onto Murray's face.
"What kind of stray mutt thinks it can lay a hand on Ivan Stephens's wife?"
"Ivan Stephens?!"
Murray's features contorted, but the words died in his throat.
The most powerful man in Crestmont's elite circles. Head of the Stephens Consortium.
The Delgados weren't fit to shine his shoes.
Josephine scrambled away on all fours.
Lavinia stared at Ivan's striking face, jealousy spilling from her eyes.
How did she land Ivan Stephens?
Ivan didn't spare any of them a second glance. He scooped Melody into one arm and draped the other around my shoulders.
"Did they scare you?" His voice softened instantly.
"Disgusted me is more like it." My expression stayed flat.
"Then let's go home and wash your eyes."
Ivan shielded me as we left the hospital, a wall of bodyguards flanking us on every side.
A few days later, word came back.