The Breakdown

The mask was gone. The teenager was just another enemy.

Seraphina stared at the video, her face draining of color. "You filmed this?" she whispered, not to Elena, but to Bella. "After everything I did for you? The schools? The clothes?"

"You didn't do it for me," Bella said, her voice shaking but her chin high. "You did it for the brand. And I'm not part of the brand anymore, am I?"

Seraphina lunged. She grabbed Bella's arm, her nails digging into the girl's skin. "Give me the drive."

Bella screamed, twisting away. "No!"

Elena didn't think. She acted.

She tackled Seraphina.

They fell onto the pile of suitcases, a tangle of limbs and silk. Elena wasn't a fighter, but she was desperate. She shoved Seraphina back, pinning her against the mattress.

"Run!" Elena shouted to Bella. "Go to the police!"

"I can't!" Bella cried. "They'll arrest me too! I helped you!"

"Just go!"

Bella grabbed her bag and bolted. Elena heard her footsteps thudding down the hall, then the heavy slam of the front door.

Seraphina snarled, bucking Elena off. She scrambled to her feet, her hair wild, her eyes murderous.

"You ruined everything," she hissed. "My daughter. My marriage. My life."

"Your life was a lie," Elena said, backing toward the door. "And now everyone knows it."

"Not everyone," Seraphina said, smoothing her dress. "Not the people who matter."

She reached into her pocket. She pulled out a phone. Not hers.

Marcus's.

"Security," she said into the receiver. "Lock down the house. We have a breach."

Elena didn't wait. She ran.

She ran down the hall, past the portraits of dead Hawthornes, past the silent, judging eyes of the ancestors. She reached the stairs.

Guards were coming up. Two of them. Big. Professional.

She turned.

She ran into the master bedroom. She slammed the door and locked it.

It wouldn't hold them for long.

She looked around the room. The four-poster bed. The silk drapes. The vanity covered in crystal bottles.

It was a cage. A beautiful, expensive cage.

She went to the window. It was reinforced glass. Unbreakable.

She went to the phone on the nightstand. Dead. The line had been cut.

She was trapped.

She backed up until she hit the vanity. Her hand brushed against a heavy crystal vase.

She picked it up.

The door handle jiggled. Then a heavy thud as someone threw their weight against it.

"Open the door, Mrs. Hawthorne," a voice called out. "Don't make this difficult."

Elena looked at the vase. It was heavy. Solid.

She threw it at the mirror.

The glass shattered, a spiderweb of cracks radiating from the impact. Shards rained down onto the vanity, glittering like diamonds.

It wasn't enough. It wasn't an escape. It was just destruction.

She picked up another vase. And another.

She smashed the lamps. She smashed the perfume bottles. She smashed the picture frames.

The room filled with the smell of expensive scents and the sound of breaking glass.

It was a tantrum. It was a riot. It was the only power she had left.

The door splintered. Wood cracked around the lock.

Elena stopped. She was breathing hard, her chest heaving. She looked at the destruction she had wrought.

It felt good.

But it didn't solve the problem.

She needed help. Real help. Not Kai. Not the police.

She needed a shark.

She reached into her bra. The second burner phone. The one she had bought at the gas station. The one she hadn't told anyone about.

It had 4% battery.

She dialed a number she had memorized years ago. From a business card she had found in Marcus's wallet, tucked behind a receipt for a diamond bracelet.

It rang once. Twice.

"Vane," a voice answered. Rough. Impatient.

"Silas," Elena said. "This is Elena Vance."

"I know who you are," Silas said. "You're the woman currently destroying my client's reputation on the nightly news."

"I'm the woman who has the unredacted trust deed," Elena said. "And the birth certificates. And a video of Seraphina poisoning Marcus."

Silence on the line.

"I'm listening," Silas said.

"I'm trapped in the master bedroom," Elena said. "Security is breaking down the door. If they take me, the evidence goes to the Times. If I walk out of here... you get exclusive rights to the probate case of the century."

"You want me to represent you?"

"I want you to destroy them," Elena said. "And I want half."

"Half of what?"

"Everything," Elena said. "The house. The trust. The legacy."

The door gave way with a crash. The guards burst in, tasers drawn.

"Silas?" Elena asked, her voice calm.

"Put the phone on speaker," Silas said.

Elena hit the button. She held the phone up like a shield.

"Gentlemen," Silas's voice boomed from the tiny speaker. "This is Silas Vane. I am Mrs. Hawthorne's attorney. If you touch her, I will sue your security firm into bankruptcy and have your licenses revoked by morning."

The guards stopped. They looked at each other. They looked at Elena.

"She picked up the phone," Elena said to them. "Not to Marcus. To a shark."