As soon as I was inside the Maslow residence, I knew it was time to change my appearance.
I did not want to give Brenton any knowledge about me, and since this place was big and deserted, I decided to hide behind a giant vase and change my clothes.
It didn’t take me long to take off my black shirt and pants and reveal what I was wearing underneath, which was a blue dress.
It was slightly wrinkled due to being crushed under my black attire, but I did not care about it.
Once I was done, I hid the shirt and pants inside the vase before taking a look around the grand palace. So, this was where he lived; pathetic.
Why did he have to destroy my life when he had a perfectly good home? Why did he have to destroy my bakery when he could buy ten bakeries in any part of the world?
The more I thought about it, the more my fury grew. Brenton Maslow had wronged me on a very deep level, and there was no way he would be allowed to get away with it.
If he could afford to live in a palace, then he could give me my bakery back. He owed me this much.
And if he did not agree, then I would set this house on fire. I would destroy his life if I had to.
Trying to control my rage but failing to do so, I tried to look for the people who lived here, more specifically, Brenton Maslow.
He made me suffer in the cold while he lived here in this warm and cozy place—just how selfish could he be?
As soon as I found him, I would slap the living daylights out of him because that was exactly what he needed.
Making sure to keep myself hidden, I snuck around the palace, trying to find voices. But it was weirdly silent here, just like the man I was here to find.
Had I been wrong? Was there no one here? If Brenton didn’t live here, then where did he reside?
Even though I had easily been able to fool the guards, hiding behind the bushes hadn’t been easy, especially when I felt like I would freeze to death and my bladder complained every few seconds.
I moved around corridor to corridor, but it was as if not a soul existed in this freakishly beautiful place.
If my trip here was to be a waste, then my face would be the first one Brenton would see in the morning.
I would stand outside his office if it came to that, but there was no way I was letting him ignore me.
I knew he did not really need the land that he had just bought because he was rich and his family owned this gigantic palace, so he had to give me back what he took from me.
One could not come up with new business ideas every day; it took a lot of hard work and investment.
It was while I was letting my rage simmer that I heard the sound of voices, and not just one but multiple, as if there was a small gathering or something.
And it seemed to be coming from behind the double doors with strange carvings.
Praying to God for Brenton to be present, I stormed over to the double doors and threw them open before marching inside.
And what I saw just added fuel to the already-exploding volcano inside me.
It looked like a family dinner from where I stood. Three couples sat along the length of a long dining table.
An older-looking man sat at the head of the table, while a kid of around fourteen and a few others who were much too young were present in the dining hall as well.
However, it was the man sitting with a scowl on his beautiful face that really made me wish I had claws for nails so I could scratch the beauty off him.
Brenton Maslow sat with his family, laughing and talking as if he hadn’t just destroyed somebody’s life, as if he hadn’t taken my livelihood and crushed it under his feet and bulldozers.
He had to pay for all this. He had to pay me back.
I was so blinded by fury that I did not realize what I was doing until a sharp sound tore through the fog of rage, and I realized I had slapped Brenton hard across the face.
Well, he deserved it.
“You son of a disgusting bitch! How could you do this?! How dare you destroy my life?!” I yelled, glaring at him, feeling satisfied as his cheek colored.
Good, I should leave my mark on him just as he had left his ugly mark on my life. Did his family know what kind of bastard he was? Did they raise him to be like this?
“Excuse me, young lady,” the older man sitting at the head of the table said, his voice slicing through the thick tension in the room.
“Just who are you, and how dare you trespass on my property and ruin a perfectly good family dinner? Who let you in?”
I looked at the man who I assumed was Brenton’s father. “I don’t need anybody’s permission to go anywhere; especially after what this”—I gave Brenton a once-over—“heartless creature has done to me.”
Silence spread through the entire room, but I did not care. I was only here for one thing, and I would not leave until I got it.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing here? Haven’t you learned your lesson already?” Brenton finally spoke.
I scoffed. Just who did he take me for, a damsel in distress?
“If you think I am going to just sit back and cry over what you did, then you are sorely mistaken. I don’t forgive the ones who wrong me; I always take my revenge,” I snarled.
My heart hiccupped when he took a step toward me as if he was planning to attack me.
“Get the fuck out of my house. Leave now and save that little bit of dignity that I was merciful enough to leave you with, or else I will take that away and have you thrown out.”
If he thought I would cower in fear before him, then he was wrong. Brenton did not realize that he had taken everything from me.
The dignity he talked about leaving me with did not exist because it had been demolished with my bakery. I had nothing to lose anymore.
Instead of backing away, I stepped closer. These rich people thought they held all the power, but they knew nothing about people who were determined, people who demanded justice.
“Do your worst, Brenton Maslow. I am not afraid of you. I am not going to back down and let you walk all over me,” I stated.
I could see his jaw tightening as if he was grinding his teeth. The muscles in his body tensed as if getting ready for a fight.
I didn’t know much about martial arts, but I had lived on the streets, so I could hold my own if somebody dared to come at me.
“Butler! Butler!” I was surprised when he yelled for his butler. What was he going to do?
“Yes, sir? You called for me.” A man about five feet and eight inches immediately came to stand in front of Brenton, wearing the signature butler’s uniform.
Great, Brenton had puppets all over the place.
“Butler, who let this…thing in? Are you not aware of the rules? Anyone who is not family must stay out where all the unwanted people and things are.”
Brenton looked at me as he said all this. I would’ve laughed if I hadn’t been so angry.
If he thought I would feel insulted and cry in front of him, then I should knock some sense into him.
How long would it take for him to realize that I was not like other women who were fragile and cried over the slightest things? I had cried a lot in my life…no more.
“Forgive me, sir, for I was not aware of her entering the Maslow property. I will take care of her right away.”
Butler grabbed my arm, intending to drag me away, only to fail as I wrenched my arm out of his grasp.
“Don’t touch me, you mindless puppet! I am here to talk to your boss, and I’m not leaving until I’m done,” I said.
“I am not going to waste my time on someone like you,” Brenton snapped.
“You have no choice; not unless your reputation matters to you,” I responded. How could he possibly think that I would not ruin him?
He arched an eyebrow. “You dare to challenge me?”
“Like I said, I never back down.” I looked him in the eyes, willing him to give in. Why did he have to fight with me?
People like him should have been smart enough to know when there was a battle lost. I guessed he was an idiot.
Brenton was silent for a minute before he spoke. “Butler, I changed my mind. Don’t drag her out of the mansion; take her to the dungeon; I’ll deal with her there.”
He turned away from me after that, leaving Butler to follow his orders.
This time when Butler grabbed my arm, it was as if an iron band had been clamped around my limb, making it impossible for me to shake it off.
No, I would not let him do this to me. Brenton had to speak to me, and he had to do it right now.
“Let me go! Brenton, you are going to talk to me!” I yelled at the top of my lungs as I was dragged out of the dining hall by the stupid puppet.
“I swear to God, I am going to kill you if you don’t let go of me right now! Where the fuck are you taking me?!”
“Mr. Maslow told me to take you to the dungeon, so that is what I’m doing,” Butler answered as he began to lead me down the stairs.
“I wish your fucking precious Mr. Maslow would tell you to jump off a cliff so you could leave me alone. How can you just do as he says? Do you not have a mind of your own? Do you not know how to make your own fucking decisions? Do you not know the difference between right and wrong?”
My throat was starting to hurt from yelling so much, but I did not care. I wanted to disrupt the peace of this family just like Brenton had ruined my peaceful life. I hadn’t even done anything to him.
The world around me darkened the farther we traveled down the stairs. It felt like an abyss because the stairs seemed to go on forever.
What would I find when I reached the bottom? Would I be locked up in here for eternity? Was that what Brenton was planning to do?
If I was locked up, then I would not be able to get his attention and ruin his life like I promised to. No, no, I could not let this man lock me up.
“Mr. Maslow pays me handsomely for following his orders,” Butler answered.
“So? You are willing to do wrong just because of money? You know, they are right when they say that money is toxic. It can make you do the most unspeakable things,” I muttered as we finally came to the end of the stairs, my feet touching solid ground upon arrival.
“When you have a wife and two kids to take care of, a lot of people are willing to do the most heinous things, ma’am,” he replied before leading me toward what could only be described as a prison cell.
The barred door looked to be made of expensive brass, or was it copper, or maybe something else? I was not very good at chemistry and therefore did not have much knowledge about metals.
Butler opened the door and gently pushed me inside before shutting the door and locking it, trapping me inside.
I was about to demand that he let me out, but I never got the chance as Brenton came storming down the stairs.
But whatever, I was glad he was here because I could talk to him now, and if I had to insult him to keep him here I would.
“Butler, you may leave. I will take care of this,” he ordered Butler, who bowed and left without a word. I felt sorry for Butler because the Maslows had brainwashed him.
“What is the meaning of this?! Let me out right now!” I shook the bars on the door, hoping the old manufacturing would give way to escape, but no, the stupid thing didn’t even move.
“What is your fucking problem? Don’t you understand that you are nothing to me?” he asked, looking straight at me.
“You destroyed my bakery; that is my fucking problem! And I couldn’t care less about what you think of me because, believe it or not, the feeling is mutual. I wouldn’t waste a second talking to a twat like you if I could help it,” I retorted.
“Let me out of here!”
“I can’t believe you are whining and wasting my time over a stupid bakery. Do you think I have time for people like you and your petty complaints? I am a businessman, and I deal with people who are much more important than you. And as for your bakery, I destroyed it because it was as worthless as you,” he snapped.
“When I destroy your career, Brenton Maslow, and mark my words, I will, then you will know how it feels. You have a multinational business and a palace for a house, so you don’t know what hard work feels like.
You are a spoiled brat who doesn’t know the meaning of hard work because you got everything on a silver platter. And I feel sorry for you because you will never know the value of what you have; however, I will have mercy on you and show you exactly how it feels when all that you’ve worked for is reduced to nothing.
I will destroy you, Brenton Maslow. And that is a promise,” I finished, breathing heavily after the long speech.
Brenton smirked as if my words hadn’t fazed him, but I knew otherwise. There was anger in his eyes, and I knew I had hit a nerve.
“Firecracker, your words mean as little to me as your precious bakery did. And threatening me will only bring war to your doorstep. Are you sure you really want that?” he asked, coming closer to me.
“If you bring war, then it is one I will win,” I stated.
Brenton shrugged. “All right. If it’s war you want, firecracker, then that is exactly what you will get. And darling, I never lose.”
He did not give me a chance to reply, just turned around and marched back up the stairs…
Leaving me alone in the dungeon.
