Page 182 of Savage Throne
And he would never admit defeat.
But my mother’s ring sitting disrespectfully in the bowl was killing him.
You didn’t predict that either. Did you?
I winked at him.
My father’s composure cracked—minute fractures spreading across the polished mask he’d worn for decades. I could see it in the tight set of his jaw, the barely restrained fury in his eyes.
The Grand Mountain Master was crumbling.
And I was the one holding the hammer.
The move of dropping my mother’s ring into his bowl had been designed not to wound but toenrage.
My father’s greatest weakness was his pride.
He thrived on respect.
Demanded it.
To strip him of it—publicly, no less—was to rip the ground from beneath his feet.
His lips raised into a sneer before he fixed his face back to that deceptive mask of calm.
Oh yeah. You are fucking very close to losing it.
I leaned back in my chair, forcing myself to appear at ease, though every muscle in my body screamed to rip his fucking head off.
This wasn’t just about power or respect.
This was about revenge.
My father had taken my sister from me. He’d taken Chanel and Romeo. All of them had been slaughtered in cold blood. They were gone, their lives snuffed out like candles in the wind, and the man who had done it sat before me.
But even more, Father. You took Moni away from me and forced her to kill. You fucking gave her living nightmares that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
So perhaps this was about more than revenge.
Maybe, this was all about love—one so intense it consumed and collided with any person or anything trying to destroy it.
The music rose and the dancers began to spin closer to us.
Chen called more men over to surround our table.
They hurried and guarded the space.
I felt Moni’s hand slip onto my thigh under the table.
I covered her hand with mine, giving it a gentle squeeze. The warmth of her skin seeped into my flesh, grounding me, and for a moment, I allowed myself to feel it—the lushness of her love.
My father’s gaze flicked to her, then back to me, and I saw the flicker of something dark in his eyes.
Jealousy?
Anger?
Fear?
