The lead guard pulled his trigger, but I was already a blur of motion. I didn’t need a weapon; my body was a perfected engine of destruction. I sidestepped the bullet, the heat of it grazing my cheek, and drove my palm into the man’s solar plexus. He collapsed without a sound.
The others panicked. They were used to bullying defenseless people, not facing a man who moved with the speed of a lightning strike. I swept the leg of the nearest attacker, hearing the sickening crunch of bone, and used his falling body as a shield against the next wave of fire.
In less than sixty seconds, ten of the city’s most expensive mercenaries were groaning in the mud of the foyer.
Silas Vance stood frozen near the grand staircase, his hand still tangled in Mia’s hair. His face, usually twisted with arrogant pleasure, was now pale with terror. "Who... who are you?" he stammered, his voice cracking. "Do you know who my father is? I am Silas Vance! I’ll have you erased from existence!"
"I don't care about your father," I said, stepping over a fallen guard. My voice was low, vibrating with a coldness that made the air in the room feel like ice. "I care about the woman you’re touching."
I walked toward him, my boots clicking rhythmically on the marble floor. With every step, Silas retreated, dragging Mia with him.
"Stay back! I’ll kill her! I swear I’ll kill her!" he screamed, pulling a small silver pistol from his robe.
I didn't stop. I didn't even slow down. "Go ahead. Pull the trigger," I challenged him, my eyes locked onto his. "But I promise you, before the bullet even leaves the barrel, I will have torn your heart out of your chest."
Silas’s hand shook violently. He looked at the wreckage of his security team and then back at me. He saw no fear in my eyes—only the absolute certainty of his death. His courage broke. He shoved Mia away and turned to run up the stairs.
I was faster. I grabbed his ankle and yanked him back down, his chin hitting the marble with a heavy thud. I stepped on his hand, the one that had held the gun, and felt the delicate bones shatter under my heel.
"This hand touched her," I whispered.
I knelt beside Mia. She was trembling, her eyes wide with a mixture of shock and recognition. She looked at me—not as a billionaire, but as the boy she had pulled from a burning car years ago.
"Ethan?" she breathed, her voice a fragile thread. "Is it really you?"
"I'm here, Mia," I said, my voice softening for the first time. I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. "Nobody is ever going to hurt you again. Not Silas Vance, and especially not the Hawthornes."
I stood up and signaled to Thomas, who had just walked through the ruined doors with a team of Kaelen family doctors. "Take her to the private medical wing. I want the best specialists in the country. If she has so much as a scratch, I want to know about it."
As they carried Mia away, Thomas leaned in. "Master, Silas’s father is on the line. He’s offering fifty million dollars to forget this 'misunderstanding.'"
I looked down at Silas, who was sobbing on the floor, clutching his broken hand.
"Tell his father that fifty million wouldn't even buy the air his son breathes," I said, my expression turning back into a mask of stone. "By tomorrow morning, the Vance family business will be delisted from the stock exchange. I want them in the streets, begging for the same scraps they tried to sell Mia for."
Thomas bowed. "And the banquet tomorrow night, Master? Elara and the impostor Gerald are still planning to announce their 'Kaelen Partnership' to the world".
I looked at the emerald ring on my finger, the light reflecting off its deep green surface.
"Let them celebrate," I said, a dark, dangerous smile creeping onto my face. "Let them tell the whole world they’ve joined the Kaelen family. I want them to be at the very top of their mountain of lies... because the higher they climb, the more bones they’ll break when I pull the ground out from under them."
As I walked out of the villa, my phone buzzed. It was a text from Elara.
“Ethan, I’m at the most expensive restaurant in the city with Gerald. He just bought me a necklace worth more than your life. Don't bother coming to the banquet tomorrow. Security has your photo, and they have orders to beat you on sight.”
I didn't reply. I simply deleted the message.