Chapter 1 - The Protector
The sharp, ringing sound of the slap echoed through the opulent dining room of Laurent House.
Every single conversation around us instantly died into a suffocating, horrified silence.
The stinging heat on my cheek was absolutely nothing compared to the ice freezing my veins.
Richard stood over me, his chest heaving, his eyes burning with a terrifying, unhinged rage.
Before I could even register the shock, a hand clamped onto Richard’s tailored shoulder with the force of a steel vice.
It was the waiter who had been standing quietly in the shadows just moments before.
His eyes, previously polite and invisible, now burned with a lethal, terrifying intensity.
“Sarah… he just put his hands on the wrong woman,” the waiter said, his voice carrying an icy authority.
Richard spun around, his face turning a furious shade of crimson as he tried to shake off the grip.
“Take your hands off me, you nobody, or I will buy this entire restaurant just to fire you,” Richard spat aggressively.
The waiter did not even blink, smoothly twisting Richard’s arm behind his back until my husband let out a pathetic, high-pitched yelp.
“My name is Gabriel, and you will never, ever touch her again,” he whispered darkly into Richard’s ear.
Restaurant security guards flooded the dining room, but to my absolute shock, they did not grab Gabriel.
Instead, they grabbed Richard, pinning his arms to his sides like a common criminal.
As they dragged my screaming, swearing husband out of the exclusive restaurant, Gabriel turned to me with a gentle, protective expression.
“We need to leave right now, Mrs. Mitchell,” he urged softly, offering me a steady hand.
“Your mother’s family has been waiting for this exact moment for over twenty years.”
May you like
My mind was spinning, my hands instinctively cradling my pregnant belly to protect my unborn child.
I nodded slowly, letting this mysterious stranger guide me out the back exit into the cold Manhattan night.
