The black-scaled snake writhed with impatience. Daddy, hurry up and bring Mommy back! She shouldn't have to suffer anymore!
Clement stared at the jade pendant around my neck, his gaze locked on it as the stone deepened toward crimson. In the final minute before it turned completely red, his expression was pure, unhinged mania.
"Starting today, the lady of this house is Dawn Henson. The master is me, Clement Sanchez. Everything the Fox family owns belongs to me. My mother will never have to bow and scrape again. She'll live like the rich woman she deserves to be."
"As for Carla and that little brat of hers..."
"They'll vanish from this world completely. As if they never existed at all."
Lauren Lawrence started clapping first.
A dozen voices erupted in cheers around the room.
"Son, you're brilliant!"
"Clement really pulled it off!"
"We're going to be rich!"
Clement soaked it all in, laughing with wild, reckless triumph.
He walked back to me, and his final words dripped with the condescension of a man tossing a coin to a beggar. "Carla. Any last words?"
I lifted my head and smiled. Cold as a blade.
"Of course I do. But these aren't last words."