Leticia snapped. She slashed the blade across my cheek, a sharp sting blooming on my skin. I barely flinched. I just smiled, the metallic taste of blood filling my mouth.
“Oh, Leticia.” I licked the blood from my lip. “You’re so easy to provoke.”
She screamed, raising the knife again- BOOM!
The warehouse doors exploded open, flooding the space with gunfire and chaos. Men shouted. Bullets ripped through the air. The scent of gunpowder and blood thickened the air.
Then I heard them.
Evander’s sharp voice: “Move in. No one leaves alive.” Donovan’s growl, low and furious: “Where the fuck is she?”
A twisted part of me smiled. They came for me. Leticia spun, panic flashing in her eyes. Benjamin cursed, pulling a gun, hands unsteady. He was unraveling. They both were.
“Fucking kill them!” Benjamin barked, but his men hesitated. They weren’t loyal to a sinking ship.
Then I saw him. Donovan. Storming through the chaos like a god of war, gun raised, fury in his eyes. Blood splattered his shirt–some his, some not–but it didn’t slow him. He saw me tied to the chair, my cheek bleeding, and his face twisted into something murderous. Then he moved. Fast. Precise. Deadly.
A bullet between the eyes of the man closest to me. A second shot to the one behind him. Two down. Evander followed, eyes cold as steel, moving with practiced ease, his gun spitting death. Three more fell.
Leticia shrieked, grabbing a gun from a fallen man, hands shaking as she aimed at me. “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance!” she screamed, finger tightening on the trigger.
Gunshot. Blood splattered.
Leticia gasped, eyes wide, stumbling back, hands pressing against the hole in her stomach. She looked at me. Then at Benjamin. Then, finally, at Donovan.
Gun still raised. Smoke curling from the barrel. Her lips parted, as if to speak. But no words came. She collapsed. Dead.
The warehouse fell into silence, only the crackling flames and ragged breaths filling the void. Benjamin stared at Leticia’s lifeless body, his expression unreadable, then clenched his jaw, rage overtaking grief. “You…” he breathed, stepping forward. “You-”
Donovan turned the gun on him. “Shut the fuck up.”
Benjamin’s fists curled. “She was supposed to live.”
I let out a soft laugh, stepping closer, voice dripping with mockery. “Oh, Benjamin. She was never going to survive this. Neither were you.”
Betrayal Wears My Crown
1/3 91.7%
His wild, desperate eyes snapped to me. “You think this is over? You think you’ve won?”
I smirked. “Oh, darling. I already won. You just haven’t realized it yet”
His face twisted, something between hatred and obsession burning in his eyes. “You’re still mine!”
I tilted my head, amused. “No, Benjamin. I was never yours.” I turned my back on him. He lunged–his last mistake.
BANG.
A bullet tore through his kneecap. He crashed to the ground, letting out a ragged scream.
Evander lowered his gun. “You’re done.”
Benjamin groaned, clutching his ruined knee, but his obsessed, deranged eyes never left me. “You’ll regret this,” he hissed.
I crouched, gripping his chin with bloody fingers.
“No, Benjamin.” I whispered, my lips curling into a vicious smile. “You will.”
Benjamin was crawling, blood trailing behind him like a dying animal. His breaths were ragged, uneven, filled with something I hadn’t heard from him in years. Fear.
Evander was merciless, stepping closer, his gun aimed with a steady hand. “Going somewhere, Willoughby?” His voice was cold, detached–nothing like the brother I once
knew.
Benjamin growled, struggling to push himself up. “You fucking-”
BANG.
The bullet ripped through his thigh. He collapsed with a strangled yell, his hand instinctively clutching the fresh wound.
Donovan scoffed, watching him writhe. “Pathetic.”
I stepped forward, my heels clicking against the concrete. I wanted him to hear every step, to feel it in his bones. To know that I was the last thing he would ever see.
Benjamin’s eyes snapped to mine, desperate, crazed. “Valeria,” he panted. “You–You don’t have to do this.” His bloody fingers reached for my hand. “I–I loved you,”
I stared at him, at the man who had once controlled my life, dictated my every move, stripped me of my name, my family, my freedom. And now, he was nothing.
I tilted my head, smirking. “You call that love, Benjamin?” I crouched beside him, my fingers grazing his blood–streaked cheek. “You destroyed me. You broke me. But you should’ve known something, darling.” I leaned in, my voice dropping to a whisper. “I don’t stay broken.”
His breath hitched, his pupils blown wide with something dangerously close to realization.
He had lost.
I straightened, stepping back, watching as he struggled to sit up, his hands slipping in his own blood.
2/3 93.3%
1447
I straightened, stepping back, watching as he struggled to sit up, his hands slipping in his own blood.
“You never deserved to win, Benjamin,” I said smoothly.
His lips parted, his body trembling from blood loss. “I-”
I turned away, I didn’t need to hear it. His excuses. His regrets. His last, pathetic attempts to crawl back to something he had already lost.
“Valeria,” he called after me, voice hoarse. “Don’t–Please-”
I looked over my shoulder, amusement curling at my lips. “Begging? That’s new.”
His expression twisted, rage flickering behind his pain. “You fucking bitch.”
I laughed, genuinely entertained. “There you are.” I leaned down, voice sickeningly sweet. “For a second, I thought you actually grew a soul.”
His breaths were heavy, desperate. He knew. This was the end.
Donovan lit a cigarette, inhaling deeply before exhaling a slow stream of smoke. “We should gut him and leave his body in the fucking street.”
Evander cracked his knuckles, considering. “Or we could let him bleed out here. No help. No escape.”
Benjamin snarled. “Cowards.”
I smirked. “Says the man who ran from his own demise.”
Benjamin growled, forcing himself up on his elbows. His entire empire, his power, his wealth–it was all gone. Leticia was dead. His men had abandoned him. And now, he was lying in his own blood, surrounded by the people he had once controlled.
I glanced at Evander and Donovan. “Burn it.”
Evander didn’t hesitate. He tossed a gasoline canister to the ground, the liquid soaking into the concrete, the scent thick in the air.
Benjamin’s eyes widened. “Wait-”
Donovan flicked his lighter, watching the flame dance. “You had this coming, Willoughby.” He let it drop.
The fire roared to life instantly, flames licking up the walls, spreading fast. Heat seared the air, smoke curling around us.
Benjamin tried to crawl away, dragging himself toward the exit, his blood smearing across
the floor. “No–NO!”
I watched him struggle, watched him realize he wasn’t getting out of this.
“You really thought you’d win?” I mused, stepping just close enough for him to see the pure satisfaction in my eyes.
He looked up, frantic. “Valeria, please-”
I smiled. “Beg harder.”
His screams followed us as we walked away, swallowed by the growing flames. His empire was gone. Leticia was dead. And now. Benjamin Willoughby would die alone. I
