Crimson heels clicked a staccato rhythm against the polished marble floor, each clack resonating in the cavernous silence of Garnet's office. Andrea, a vision of predatory elegance in her custom made charcoal suit, glided through the mahogany doors with the confidence of a panther entering its domain. Garnet, perched behind her expansive desk, watched the entrance with a glacial stillness, her emerald eyes unreadable."Garnet," Andrea drawled, her voice dripping with honeyed malice, "Always a pleasure to find you amidst such… opulence." She gestured around the opulent office, adorned with priceless art and antique furniture. "Thor certainly has exquisite taste."“So I get a visit too.” Garnet answered her sarcastically, her smile a flicker of cold fire. "And you, Andrea, have exquisite timing. However I was not expecting… guests."Unbothered by the dismissal in Garnet’s voice, Andrea took a seat opposite her, her smile widening. "Imagine my surprise when I brought my proposition to Tho
When he summoned Garnet and was informed by the secretary that she had left without telling anyone Thor had been surprised. Had his ice cold queen been angered by Andrea’s appearance in the office? Feeling angry with her he stormed out of the tower, anger and churning in his gut. Garnet's abrupt departure, her silent withdrawal, felt like a punch to the solar plexus. The unexpected meeting with Andrea was a distant haze now, drowned by the sting of Garnet's absence. He did not need the keen ears of a God to hear the unspoken accusation in her silence: a confirmation of Andrea’s plan, a betrayal that Garnet could not bear.The cityscape blurred past as he order Sean to drive fast, the honking sounds of motorists morphing into a cacophony of discontent that rivaled the one in his head. Home, an oasis of familiarity and solace, lay ahead. Yet, the thought of stepping into that haven with Garnet probably hurt by what she had seen twisted his heart like a blacksmith's tongs. Each passing s
“Do you want to ride to the office along with me today?” Thor asked. Ever since he suggested they go on a honeymoon the tension between them had become a palpable thing that filled their senses.He had purposefully stayed away from her and not graced their bedroom with their presence, instead sleeping in the guest room which had disappointed Garnet. He wanted to wait until they were far away in a place that did not have any of their painful memories to make new ones.“I will not be going to the office today.” She said and blushed as she looked up at his intense gaze. “Maya is visiting and I want to spend time with her before we go on our trip.Maya was briefly back in town again and she wanted to catch up. Garnet felt guilty for having left her in the club the way she had so she promised that they could go out and eat, her treat.She got dressed in a little lilac sundress and she looked at herself in the mirror she bemoaned the lack of her tan, she looked white and pasty. Thor had been
Maya's scream hitched in her throat, strangled by a fist of ice that squeezed her heart tight. She watched in horrified slow motion as the rusty minivan swerved onto the main road, Garnet's startled face pressed against the grimy back window. One desperate lunge, but her fingers grazed only air as the van sped away, swallowing Garnet whole.Panic, raw and primal, ripped through Maya. The world dissolved into a blur of honking horns and screeching tires as she bolted after the van, feet pounding the asphalt. Adrenaline surged, masking the sting of scraped knees and the ache in her lungs. Logic fled, replaced by the instinctual need to reach Garnet, to pull her back from the abyss that had just yawned open in front of them.The van, a hulking beast on the road, weaved through traffic with reckless abandon. Maya, fueled by desperation, wove after it, a lone runner trying to defy the metal tide. Cars honked, swerved, showered her with angry shouts, but her gaze remained fixed on the van,
Garnet woke to the taste of dust and the hollow scent of fear. Her mind was blank for a minute then she remembered and panic coated her throat, leaving it parched and sandpapery and she was unable to swallow. Her eyes flew open, slamming against the suffocating darkness. She couldn't remember the last time she'd blinked, the memory lost in the swirling vortex of terror that had consumed her.She tried to move and realized that she was bound, hands tied behind her back with something rough and scratchy, her ankles felt the same way, anchored to something solid and unyielding, leaving her trussed up like a chicken. Her mind frantically clawed at the edges of time, trying to snag the memory of how she'd gotten to this place. Then the memories flooded her and she felt a wave of dizziness as she remembered Maya’s pale face as someone had covered her face with a piece of cloth. She had probably passed out after because she could not remember how she had gotten to this place. The only reaso
Andrea’s exit from the room was heralded by Garnet’s endless screams for help. She refused to give up in the hopes that if there was any chance that she could get someone to find her and save her then she was going to scream until her very last breath. After some time had elapsed and she was no longer able to scream and her throat was sore the kidnappers, faces twisted with a macabre glee came in and roughly cut the ropes that her bound hands and legs before hurling her to her feet. They herded her out of what appeared to be a warehouse in the midst of nowhere.Garnet tottered on shaky legs as she was pushed and forced to walk further into the thick of the trees until they came to a clearing which they seemed satisfied with as the chosen location and they stopped. Then Garnet noticed that they had already dug a pit probably to bury her in and the tiny ember of hope she had been holding unto was doused by that sight. Even then she turned pleading eyes at them and in her hoarse voice
Thor paced about the waiting room, not daring to walk away in fear that if he left the doctors would come out with information for him. The rest of Garnet’s family came and held vigil in the waiting room while staring at him with open hostility.The sterile white of the hospital walls mocked his churning stomach and he felt so sick, it was like the walls were closing in. It had been several long hours since Garnet had been wheeled into the operating theatre and so far there was still nothing from the doctors and that just made the fear more palpable. He could still hear the gunshot and his mind was stuck in a constant replay of her body falling heavily to the ground. He was afraid, terrified that he would lose her before he got a chance to really live and he felt like he was drowning in a pool of regrets.While other people in the hospital went about their business, not being aware of the torment he was suffering internally he felt like the burden of the world rested on his shoulders.
The memory of Garnet's eyes, wide and accusing, as they met hers before she left her to her death in that distant dusty warehouse sent a shiver down Andrea's spine, she knew without a doubt that Garnet would do everything in her power to seek revenge. If she had known that those fools would dally and not get the job done then she herself would have sent that bullet through Garnet’s head herself because now she had become a huge threat, an even bigger one than before.She paced about the plush confines of her expansive penthouse apartment, feeling at odds in her sumptuous and safe space which now felt oppressively small and suffocating. The air hung heavy with the cloying fear of being discovered and there was a turmoil churning within her. Garnet's unexpected rescue and refusal to die unnerved her badly. Who would have thought that Thor would actually go out of his way to find her? And he had done such a quick job of it too, so much that he had been able to save her even though she h