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“Let’s talk outside” His de away Did he think she was afraid of him? Intimidated? She knew for a fact she could take him doithin seconds if she had to

She slapped her hand on the table when he atte A hush settled over the entire restaurant,to the countless people staring “You can run for office and pretend to be anyone you want,” she whispered “I really don’t give a fuck about you, your fetishes, or the de happens to hter, you’ll be the first person the cops turn to Keep out of uarantee I can ruin yours in less time than a three-minute round”

“I don’t knohat you’re—”

“Just fucking stop You may fool everyone else, but not me I know the man under the cheap suit You re, I promise you that”

She wanted to kill him Maybe it was the only way to end this once and for all But then she’d be on the run, and ending up in prison wouldn’t help her daughter

“Listen…”

“Where’s Ava?” she shouted, pounding the table again “Where’s Ava? Where’s Ava?”

The hts They were calling security, so she needed to get out of the restaurant She’d cohter Part of her wanted to kill, to use the training she’d been given for death ht

She should have listened to Drago

Belle felt lost and confused as she left the side door of the restaurant She didn’t want to be alone This whole ordeal was stealing the life from her If only she could just close her eyes and wake up in paradise—a sio A life without fear

She got into the backseat of her Uber “One ave the driver the address of her childhood home—if she could even call it a ho the cold white walls, the gym in the basement, the bloodstains Her father pushed her to the point that she hated her workout sessions They were brutal, grueling, and no ot one

By the time they arrived on her street, she asked the driver to stop several houses away

Belle walked to the side of the house, planning to get inside through the side entrance She’d use the leverage they’d dug up and demand he return Ava to her He’d have to respond to her threats, at least long enough to give her daughter back She’d worry about the after else if it irl back It was time to be the woman she’d needed when she was a kid No one had ever been there to save Belle