Humiliated by My Fiancée, Crowned by RevengeChapter 1
The day I took over every regional branch my family ran in Meridian City, the whole city was deep in the Water Splash Festival. I'd barely walked out of the banquet before a crowd boxed me in and opened up with high-pressure water guns at point-blank range.
The one going hardest was Howard James—my fiancée's childhood sweetheart.
The water guns punched straight through my ceremonial coat in seconds. Embarrassing didn't begin to cover it.
I stepped forward and knocked the water gun out of Howard's hands. My voice was dead serious.
"There's a line. You just crossed it."
Before I could finish, Howard's expression crumpled into something wounded and pitiful.
"It's the Water Splash Festival—you're supposed to get soaked! Why do you always have to go after me like this..."
Judy Henson's face changed the moment she saw it.
She glanced over her shoulder.
A dozen high-pressure water guns swung toward me in unison and opened fire.
Every last stream was aimed below the belt.
The pressurized water soaked through my lower half in an instant, bringing a raw, burning sting.
The crowd around us kept growing.
My eyes were bloodshot. I screamed.
"Judy! You don't stop this right now, I'm calling the cops!"
"The cops?!"
Judy let out a cold laugh, grinning wider than before.
"Dustin, get it through your head! This is Meridian City, not Crown City! This is Henson territory! God himself could walk in here and he'd still have to bow and scrape!"
I forced a thin, cold smile, slowly reaching into my pocket for the encrypted phone. I dialed the only number stored inside.
"Send every industrial water-cannon truck in Meridian City to Starhaven Plaza. Immediately. And seal the area."
……
The moment the words left my mouth, the crowd erupted in deafening laughter.
Judy lunged forward, snatched the encrypted phone right out of my hand, and laughed even louder.
"Dustin, is your brain waterlogged?! You whip out some ancient phone and make a scary little call—who's that supposed to fool?!"
She held the screen up and turned it in a slow circle for the crowd.
"Hey, look at this! A four-digit phone number!"
"Tell me, has anyone here ever seen a four-digit phone number in their entire life?!"
Another wave of piercing laughter rose around us.
The amusement in Judy's eyes deepened. She seized my chin in her grip.