Chapter 13 - The Aftermath of the Fall
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While a female police officer gently cut the heavy plastic zip-ties from my bruised wrists, the paramedics swarmed the room.
They examined Atlas first, per my strict, screaming orders. They found a fractured rib where Adrian had kicked him, and deep, traumatic bruising along his left shoulder, but thankfully, no internal bleeding. He would live, and he would heal.
Behind me, as the officers hauled him roughly to his feet, Adrian began to scream. The impact had broken his nose, and his voice was thick with blood and blind fury.
“This is my company!” he roared, fighting against the officers' grips. “It’s my birthright! Our father left it to me! You stole my life, Maya! You stole everything from me!”
I stood up slowly, declining the paramedic's offer of a stretcher. I turned my face precisely toward the sound of his pathetic, entitled screaming.
“That’s always been your problem, Adrian,” I said, my voice cutting through the noise of the chaotic room with icy precision. “You honestly thought that blood entitled you to the empire that my work built.”
The officers dragged him out the door, his curses fading down the long hallway, mingling with the whimpers of his hired men who were currently being treated for severe dog bites in the foyer.
Marissa was found sobbing uncontrollably in the corner of the library, mascara running down her face, screaming that she had nothing to do with it, that she was just following orders. She was handcuffed and led out exactly the same way.
I stood in the center of my ruined library, surrounded by shattered glass, blood, and police tape. Vance walked up beside me, placing a warm, heavy hand on my shoulder.
“We got everything, boss,” he murmured quietly. “The audio recordings are crystal clear. The servers have it all backed up in triplicate.”
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I nodded slowly, reaching down to stroke Atlas’s head as the paramedics carefully loaded him onto a soft stretcher.
“Good,” I said. “Send it all to the prosecutor. I want him buried.”
