From Broken Trophy To Unstoppable Queen

sey

d to go back to the beginnin

s where he had bought the building just so I could hang a single charcoal sketch. I

cked front door. It was late

ey wer

ket off, sleeves rolled up. He looked relaxed. He looked

tracing her finger along the frame of a

ling her nose. "We should replace it

t said. His voice was soft. It was

the entrance, feeling like a

. It listed the gallery's founding patrons

marker from

x this,"

hick, black lines until the gold brass was nothing but an ugly

r. He didn't stop

the last chain

els clicking sharp and rhythmic ag

ned. His sm

't welcoming; it was clipped, an

goodbye,

as a wooden pillar there, part of the original structure. Years ago, Be

. It had been roma

ed the

ving wa

ared red paint. Alya had already been here. Sh

ehind me. Her voice dripped with poisoned honey. "Bennett

lated wood. It looke

ispered. "It was the only

rby workbench, left over

e metal was cold a

own," Bennett warne

t him. I looked

isel and drove

echoed thro

ew. I wasn't carving. I was erasing. I was destroy

ked. "Bennett, make h

nnett grabbe

el still in my hand. He

d. My voice was unrecog

Bennett's presence. She reached in

mily heirloom I had left

my feet like it was trash. "I'm the future Mrs. Callo

. The vibration traveled fr

hink. I sw

heek. The sound was like a g

the uneven floorboards. She flailed, grabbing at the a

wobbled.

Bennet

lun

eck to see why I had finally fough

floor. Glass exploded everywher

n, shielding her from the rain of shard

e, untouched

oom, broken only by Aly

irt was stained with blood from a cut o

hurt? T

" she wailed, burying

k holes. There was no love left. No hi

my wife. You aren't anything. Get out of

ing her. I looked at

ady gone,

ttered on the floor, soundin