"No!" I scrambled across the floor on hands and knees, throwing myself over the Holy Cup, shielding it with both hands.
"You're still protecting this piece of garbage?"
Tamara strode over, building momentum, and drove the point of her heel straight into the back of my hand.
A soft, wet puncture.
The stiletto pierced clean through my skin and sank into the flesh.
Searing agony ripped through my entire body.
I screamed. Blood dripped steadily, falling onto the cracked surface of the Holy Cup beneath my hands.
When the pain reached its peak, I stopped struggling.
I lowered my head and watched my blood soak into the fractured half of the Holy Cup until it was stained completely red.
In that instant, I heard something snap in the void, a brittle, resonant crack that existed beyond the physical world.
Somewhere in the unseen space between fate and consequence, the heavy Karmic Thread that had bound me to Delgado Group for three years shattered completely.
The divine closed its eyes. Fortune was reclaimed.
Bertram felt an inexplicable surge of panic. The unease clawed at him, making him irritable. "Stop wasting time with her. Just press her thumbprint on it!"