The Little Dove #3 ✔️

56. The Girl Behind It All

I rear back, "You're not serious?" I say, aggressively disbelieving, eyebrows raising high.

She glares, "Dead serious. I haven't worked this hard not to get the company this way and remove all those who prevented that from happening. I have every right to it just as much as you, but this is a matter of who has the skills, and you were too focused on your lover's past and those investigations to see the real trophy, Melanie. That was your biggest mistake." She says to me, folding her arms and raising an eyebrow.

I shake my head at her, "The notions in your head are so far-fetched, you even believe your fantasies, Charlize. You need help, and I don't mean community service. I mean in-depth, intense psychotherapy cause you're utterly delusional if you think my family will replace me just like yours did with you. You're not a King, a Queen, a bishop, a rook, or a knight. You're an expendable pawn, and you always have been. That is why you chose this game, you want a war, but you're hiding behind other, more important pieces on the board to be the last one, to be a winner with just you, a measly, non-existent, replaceable pawn. That is not how you play this game." I say to her, checkmating her King.

She looks feral.

Untamed.

Rustled.

Broken, beyond repair.

The sirens blaring this time were a lot louder, and surprise flickered against Charlize's empty blue eyes. The glass doors in front of me opened an inch, and I blinked slowly. Charlize sure as hell wouldn't have done that-if she had the controls.

Only one person could place that surprise on her face.

I slowly look at Charlize, "You messed with the wrong family." These are my last words before I wring my leg up and shove a kick into her hip, watching her fly into the glass head first, she groans once, holding the side of her head with a stumble, and her bright red suit gains one drop of her blood stains it. The sirens blare louder now. They must have been fake the last time they were on, exactly one week ago.

Charlize growls lowly, kicking out my legs. She straddles me, gripping her bony fingers around my neck, "You spoilt brat, this is my family too, and you're a spawn of a Myers blood relative. Poppy is the purest of all of you." She screams at me. I shove my knee right up into her behind, using her shock of surprise before knocking her to the tiled floor and throwing a swift punch towards her nose. It doesn't crack under such momentum as I roll backward.

I didn't see what was coming next.

A heel digs into my abdomen as it's my turn to be thrown through the glass behind me, the blinding pain cascading down my spine. Remembering the electric taser I'd had not too long ago, I flip on my front. My skin spliced and shattered glass under my cheek. As my eyes blur, I choke on the fall. Another kick is sent through my abdomen, "You were never the strong one, Melanie." She taunts me as I skid along the glass. I roll to a stop and breathe.

Giving up wasn't an option.

She stares down at me, almost in disappointment. Before she can open her mouth, I grab a shard of glass and Erin it towards her left thigh, just above her knee and directly into the muscle as she growls and grunts. She reaches down slowly, grabbing the hilt, and like ripping off a bandaid, she rips it out of her skin and groans, "Is that...the best...you've got?" She asks me, breathing heavily.

I shove a heel into the wounded thigh, "You were always alone, Charlize. It's not me who isn't strong, and you're the one to claim that kind of title, bitch." I spit at her, crushing her against the wall before she sends a harsh elbow into my cheekbone and a swift uppercut towards my chin. I gasp at the force before throwing my head forward and breaking her nose.