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.

into an evidence bag,

latched onto something

in?" she asked,

Rupert, who was leaning against his car smoking,

exuding a forbidding aura, out of place amidst the

gaze briefly flitting over the swelling on her forehead, and remarked sarcastically, "Quite the

heard his words, the

while gazing at him, "You saw me, didn't you? While you

Rupert silently acknowledged.

casually wiped away the

for defying you? A reminder 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 so." Stepping back to put distance between them, she

voice was cold and deep, his expression turning stormy like

to walk past to somewhere else. But he grabbed her hand, pulling her in front of him with a warning tone, "Cut it

to comply? Refused to be a scapegoat in the

loved him?

to the dinner

away, her neatly adjusted collar coming undone