Encore of the Avenging Muse (Sylvia and Rupert)

Chapter 24

By the time he slumped unconscious beneath the seats, Sylvia finally ceased her assault. She adjusted her clothes, stumbling and rolling out of the car.

As she propped herself up, not a word could escape her lips; dragging a blood-soaked, deformed purse, she shuffled step by step towards the exit.

Halfway there, a car's dome light suddenly flickered on across the way.

Sylvia shielded her eyes momentarily, and then, as her vision adjusted, she saw Rupert, impeccably dressed, stepping out of his vehicle, in stark contrast to her disheveled state. Their eyes met, and Rupert frowned. It wasn't until the sound of police sirens filled the air that Sylvia snapped back to reality.

A gloved officer approached her, extending a hand, "Ms. Lloyd, we need the evidence you're holding."

"Is he dead?" Sylvia asked coldly.

"No, he's been taken to the ER."

Noticing her distressed state, the officer's response was cautious.

Sylvia nodded, though a tension remained in her mind.

an evidence bag, offhandedly remarked,

onto something

it in?" she asked,

Rupert, who was leaning against his car smoking, and without saying

callously, his black suit exuding a forbidding aura, out

in front of her, his gaze briefly flitting over the swelling on

the tension in her mind finally

blood, she quivered her lips while gazing at him, "You

Rupert silently acknowledged.

she casually wiped away the blood stains on her hand with

of what happens when I cross you? What do you want then? For me to kneel and apologize? If that's the case, you could've said

turning stormy like the night sky

to somewhere else. But he grabbed her hand, pulling her in front of him with a

refused to comply? Refused to be a

had loved him? Did she

shouldn't have agreed to the dinner

neatly adjusted collar coming undone in