Chapter 40 - The Final Slap
Before Raymond’s lighter could touch the paper, Ellis lunged.
He didn't wait for Miller’s command. He crossed the room in two blinding strides, throwing his shoulder directly into Raymond’s good arm. The lighter flew from Raymond’s grip, clattering across the hardwood floor and rolling safely away from the kerosene pool.
Raymond screamed—a sound of pure animal fury—and threw his uninjured elbow backward, catching Ellis across the cheek. The two men crashed against the brick hearth, knocking over heavy iron fireplace tools with a deafening racket.
"Ellis!" I screamed.
Raymond clawed at Ellis’s throat, his fingers slick with mud and blood, pinning him against the hearthstone. Despite his broken body, the madness gave him unnatural strength. "You took her from me!" Raymond hissed, his face inches from Ellis’s. "You helped her take what was mine!"
I didn't think. I didn't hesitate.
I grabbed the heavy brass hearth poker resting against the fender and swung it with all the force left in my trembling arms.
The brass bar struck Raymond across his raised forearm with a solid, bone-jarring *crack*.
Raymond gasped, his grip breaking, and staggered backward into the center of the room. He turned to me, his chest heaving, his eyes wide in absolute shock.
For the first time in my entire life, Raymond Vance was looking up at me from his knees.
Slowly, deliberately, I lowered the poker. I walked over to where he knelt in the wreckage of his own empire, looking down into the face of the man who had terrified me for twenty-four years.
My right hand came up, open-palmed, and struck him across the face with a sharp, resounding *crack* that echoed through the ruined study.
The exact same blow he had struck against me at my wedding altar.
Raymond froze, his head snapped to the side, his cheek flushing crimson beneath the grime. He didn't move. He didn't breathe. The illusion of his power shattered completely in the silence of that room.
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"That," I whispered, leaning down so close he could feel the coldness of my breath, "was for my mother."
Agent Miller and two troopers moved in instantly, driving Raymond face-down onto the floor, pulling his arms behind his back, and snapping the steel cuffs onto his wrists.
