Chapter 7

A collective gasp went through the room.

Cora felt a hundred pairs of eyes land on her. She looked up and met August's gaze. It was a look of such murderous rage that it made her blood run cold.

With a roar of fury, August picked up a chair and hurled it at the projector screen. It shattered, and the obscene video vanished.

Harlow burst into loud, theatrical sobs, burying her face in August's chest.

"It's okay, darling, it's okay," he murmured, his voice laced with venom as he glared at Cora. He scooped Harlow into his arms.

"I'll be back," he said to the room, his voice a low threat. As he passed Cora, his eyes were like chips of ice. "You will pay for this."

He was gone.

Cora's hands were sweating. She fumbled in her purse and her fingers closed around the object Harlow had planted there.

A small USB drive.

She had to clear her name. She ran out of the room, heading for the hotel's security office to get the surveillance footage.

Her phone rang. It was an unknown number.

"Cora Salazar," a distorted voice said. "We have your parents."

The world tilted on its axis. "What? Who is this?"

"If you want to see them alive again, bring the original video file to the top of the Ortega Tower construction site. Now."

The line went dead.

Her phone immediately rang again. This time, it was August.

"Did you get the message?" he asked, his voice chillingly calm. "Your parents for the video. A simple trade."

"August, you bastard!" she screamed, her voice breaking with hysteria. "They have nothing to do with this! It wasn't me!"

"Save it," he sneered. "You brought this on yourself when you decided to humiliate Harlow. Now you have one hour."

He hung up.

She was powerless. He had all the cards. The truth didn't matter.

She raced to the construction site, an unfinished skyscraper piercing the night sky. On the rooftop, she saw them.

Her mother and father, bound and gagged, were hanging from a rusty construction crane, dangling over the edge of the building, hundreds of feet above the city streets.

"Mom! Dad!" she screamed, running toward them, but two of August's bodyguards blocked her path.

The wind howled around them, making the ropes creak and sway ominously.

She turned to August, who stood there watching, his face impassive. "Please, August, let them go! I'll do anything!" she sobbed, her voice torn apart by raw terror.

"The drive," he said, holding out his hand.

She didn't have the original. She only had the one Harlow planted on her. But it was all she had.

She gave it to him, her hands shaking. "Please, August. They're your family too."

He took the USB drive and, without even looking at it, crushed it under his heel. "Don't you dare call them my family," he hissed. "Now, apologize to Harlow. On your knees."

He turned and walked away with his men, leaving her alone on the rooftop with her parents.

Cora scrambled over to the crane's controls, her fingers fumbling with the levers, trying to bring them back up.

The wind gusted violently. The old, frayed ropes swayed wildly.

She prayed, her heart pounding against her ribs.

Then she heard a sound that would haunt her for the rest of her short life.

A loud, sharp snap.

The rope broke.

Her parents plummeted into the darkness.

Her hands froze on the controls. Her mind went completely blank. An eternity passed in a single second.

Then she looked down.

She saw the crimson stain spreading on the pavement below.

A scream tore from her throat, a sound of pure, animal agony that was swallowed by the wind.

It's my fault. I killed them. The thought was a relentless hammer blow to her soul.

Her phone rang again. It was him.

She answered, her hand numb. A searing pain shot through her chest.

"Have you learned your lesson yet?" August's voice came through the phone, cold and smug. "Are you ready to apologize?"

She couldn't speak. The taste of blood filled her mouth again.

"What's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" he taunted.

A strange, terrifying calm washed over her. The pain in her body and soul converged into a single point of clarity.

"August," she said, her voice a dead, hollow whisper. "I don't owe you anything anymore."

"What?" he asked, frowning. The wind was loud on her end.

She took a deep breath, the air burning her lungs.

"I said... we're even," she repeated, a little louder. "And August? I hate you."

He laughed, a cruel, ugly sound. "Hate me? Good. Feel free to jump off that roof if it hurts so much. It would be a fitting end for you."

"Okay," she whispered.

And then, Cora Salazar let go. She stepped off the edge of the building and into the empty air.