I was seven years his senior. The first time I saw Leonard, he was fighting stray dogs in an alley for scraps. His eyes were pure wolf—feral, vicious. So I took him in. I molded him from nothing. In ten years, he went from a penniless street rat to Sterling City’s most sought-after CEO. I considered him my finest creation. Until a girl brazenly blocked my car, hand on her stomach, playing a voice recorder: “Leonard, who do you like more? Me, or that old hag?” His voice, colder than I knew: “She’s past her prime. I’ve always hated how she looks down on everyone.” I smiled. Success had made him forget the days he groveled at my feet like a dog. The next day, I sent a gift box to his office—inside, the bloodied remains of a stillborn fetus. He pressed a gun to my forehead, eyes bloodshot: “Nora…” he gritted, venom in each syllable. I sipped my tea calmly. “It seems you’ve forgotten what I’m capable of, Mr. Kane.” Leonard’s face was a mask of fury. “You think I won’t pull the trigger?” he snarled. He was no longer the scrawny boy I’d found. Years of navigating a cutthroat world had forged an aura of deadly authority around him. But I just smiled and shook my head. “If I were you, I’d waste less time talking.” Leonard froze. From behind him, a faint noise scraped against the floor-to-ceiling window. He whipped his head around, his expression twisting into horror. The girl, Sienna, was dangling outside the seventy-second floor, her hands bound. Her white dress billowed in the wind, the yawning abyss just beneath her feet. “I’d be careful, if I were you,” I said, my voice a silken threat. The cold steel of the gun didn’t faze me. “After all, if your hand slips… I die, and your little darling gets splattered into a paste on the pavement.” I gave a mock sigh. “Two birds with one stone… oh, wait. Only one bird now, I suppose.” Sienna’s wails were carried by the wind. “Leonard, save me!” Leonard’s eyes were wild, crimson-rimmed. He flicked off the safety with a sharp click. “Nora, you wouldn’t dare!” My bodyguards instantly moved to surround him, the air crackling with tension. A bloodbath was imminent. I waved a lazy hand. “All of you, out.” Then, in one fluid motion, I drew a dagger and, without even looking, plunged it deep into his abdomen. He let out a choked gasp, but the gun pressed even harder against my temple. “Does it feel good?” I murmured, my voice like a lover’s whisper. Leonard’s face was a stone mask. “Are you satisfied? Let her go.” “Sienna isn’t like you. She’s just a naive girl who doesn’t know anything.” Leonard’s men arrived swiftly and pulled Sienna back to safety. I never intended to actually harm her. I watched as he held her, whispering soothing words, cradling her as if she were a priceless, fragile treasure. And suddenly, I felt a profound sense of weariness. He used to hold me that way. After our enemies took their revenge, after I lost our child and with it, the ability to ever have another. She was a girl, already perfectly formed. We had named her Lily. Leonard built a shrine for her, commissioning a gilded memorial at immense cost. “Nora,” he had said, his voice raw with grief, “our daughter will have a peaceful life in the next world.” He wanted a constant stream of prayers and candlelight to watch over her soul. I once asked him why he’d gone to such lengths. His face was unshaven, his eyes hollow, but his voice was unwavering. “Because Lily is the only child I will ever have.” Now, my gaze fell upon the gift box on his desk. You broke your promise, Leonard. But don’t worry. I’ll help you remember it. Sienna, having cried her fill, glared at me with swollen, hate-filled eyes. “Leonard, it was her! That bitch killed our baby!” Leonard’s expression flickered. He gently stroked her hair, his voice devoid of emotion. “You’ve overstepped.” Sienna’s sobs caught in her throat. She didn’t know. No one had told her that after we lost Lily, the very mention of a child became a forbidden word in our world. It was a wound that never closed, a shared agony between Leonard and me. But Sienna was an outsider. She just kept crying, her sobs designed to break a man’s heart. Leonard swept her up in his arms as she fainted, shouldering past me and striding out of the room. “Nora,” he threw over his shoulder, his voice a low growl, “I won’t forget this.” I just didn’t expect his retaliation to come so quickly. As my subordinate delivered his report, I stroked the cat purring on my lap, a profound boredom settling over me. “Mr. Kane outbid us for the Southside property, paying double the market price.” “Mr. Kane is covertly meeting with shareholders to acquire a controlling interest.” “Mr. Kane… has demolished the shrine built for Miss Lily.” My hand tightened, and the cat cried out, cowering in my lap. “Say that again.” My face was impassive. My assistant swallowed hard. “He tore it down, sir. He said… he’s going to build an amusement park for… for his mistress. They broke ground this morning.” CRASH! The teacup in my hand shattered against the wall. The assistant bowed his head. “I’ll handle it immediately!” I held up a hand. “No. I’m going myself.” By the time I arrived, half the shrine was already rubble. Sienna was holding a balloon, skipping around and directing the demolition crew. “Clear that section out completely! And over here, Leonard, I want to put a carousel right here!” Leonard just stood beside her, a gentle smile on his face as he watched her. To any outsider, they looked like a perfect, adoring couple. If only they weren't standing on the grave of my daughter’s memory. I stepped out of the car. Someone spotted me and started to speak, but the sight of me drawing a gun froze the words in his throat. Sienna turned. “Miss Nora…” I raised my arm and fired. POP! The balloon in her hand exploded. “Ah!” she shrieked, scrambling behind Leonard for cover. “Are you insane?!” Leonard roared. I said nothing. I strode towards the wretched pair, chambered another round, and fired again into the air. The two shots silenced the chaos. Everyone stared at me as if they’d seen a ghost. “Get out,” I said, my voice low and dangerous. Leonard frowned. “Nora.” “GET OUT!” I bellowed, a raw, primal scream. It had been years since anyone had pushed me to the edge of my control. No one dared to move. But Sienna, emboldened, peeked out from behind Leonard, her eyes glinting with defiance. “Miss Nora, what’s the point in letting the dead hold onto so much? It’s the living that matter, isn't it?” At her words, Leonard instinctively pulled her further behind him, shielding her body with his own. He was afraid. Afraid I would hurt his precious girl. He knew exactly how I would react to that statement.
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