The Fall

Chapter 2

Lucy's POV

I don’t even remember how many glasses of wine I had that night. A waiter came to the rooftop and tapped me on the shoulder. “Ma’am, are you alright?” I looked back and nodded downwards. “Please, we are closing in 10, ma’am.” The waiter walked away, and I looked at my phone to check the time. “11:23 pm… The night is still...fucking...young,” I mumbled, drunk.

Behind me, footsteps clicked against marble. I turned, expecting to see a waiter coming to clean up the mess, but the room was empty. The sound came again.

Click, click, click.

like high heels on stone, but there was no one there. The lights flickered, and for just a moment, the city below looked different. Darker. The buildings seemed to shift and bend, their lights glowing with a red light. In the reflection on the glass cup, my face looked like a stranger's, hollow-eyed and haunted, with something staring back at me.

Then the moment passed, the lights steadied, and the city returned to normal.

I looked at the blood on my dress, and it had spread even more. Somewhere in the distance, I could swear I heard the sound of wolves howling. “I shouldn’t have drunk all those bottles…” I mumbled. 

Click, click, click.

That sound again. I turned around, and it was Maddie. Alone.

She walked across the empty restaurant, taking each step as if she were in a runway show.

"I realized we weren't finished," Maddie said, smiling ear to ear.

"What… more could… you possibly have to say? You've already destroyed everything!" I yelled, still mumbling.

"Have I?" She stopped close enough that I could see the satisfaction gleaming in her green eyes. "I don't think you understand the full scope of what's happening here, Lucy."

"What's more on the scope, Maddie...?" I laughed.

Maddie pulled out her phone again, scrolling through what looked like legal documents. "You see, there's something else Marcus wanted me to tell you. Something about your precious little company."

My stomach dropped. "Fayth & Feather has nothing to do with this…"

"Doesn't it?" Her smile was razor-sharp. "Tell me, Lucy, where do you think all that startup capital came from? Those mysterious angel investors who appeared just when you needed them most?"

The question hit me like ice water. I'd never questioned the funding too closely, too grateful to have it when my dreams were finally within reach.

"That was Marcus, sweetheart. Every dollar, every connection, every door that opened so easily for you—all of it orchestrated by your devoted fiancé." She swiped to another document. "And according to the incorporation papers he filed yesterday, you're about to be voted out of your own board of directors."

"That's impossible." But even as I said it, pieces were falling into place. "I own controlling shares…"

"Owned. Past tense, Sissy." Her voice was almost gentle now, which somehow made it worse. "Marcus has been very busy these past few months, quietly acquiring shares through shell companies. Convincing your investors that the company needs new leadership."

The restaurant seemed to tilt around me. Three years of my life, eighteen-hour working days, and my sleepless nights, of building something beautiful from nothing. All of it had been built on lies.

"Why?" The word came out broken, barely audible.

"Daddy’s little star, he gave you all his investments and left me with his dead milk factory because I wasn’t smart enough to run a Standard company," Maddie said, throwing air quotes. "Well, who is the smart one now?"  Maddie laughed.

 "Did you really think someone like Marcus could love someone like you? Poor little Lucille, so desperate to be loved that she'd believe any fairy tale he spun."

"There's more." She reached into her purse and pulled out a thick manila envelope. "Signed statements from three of your former employees. Sexual harassment, embezzlement, and tax evasion—quite the creative list Marcus helped them compile."

The envelope hit the marble floor between us like a gunshot.

"By tomorrow morning, every news outlet in the country will be running stories about the fallen CEO who built her empire through exploitation and fraud. Whether any of it's true won't matter. Your reputation will be destroyed, your career over."

I stared at the envelope, not understanding why Maddie would do this to me. "You planned this. All of it."

"We planned this, Marcus and I. From the very beginning. You were never anything more than a business investment to him, Lucy. A means to make ends meet."

The blood from my cut palm was dripping faster now, each drop hitting the marble floor with a sound like a leaky tap. 

"Do you want to know what he calls you when we're alone together?" Maddie giggled. "His insurance policy. His cash cow. He used to laugh about how easy you were to manipulate."

The words hit me hard, each one driving me further back toward the frame bar.

"You won," I whispered, my voice sounding strange in my own ears. "You got everything. What more do you want?"

"I want you to understand what losing really means." She took a step closer, and for the first time I saw something unhinged in her eyes. "I want you to feel the way I've always felt, like nothing you do will ever be enough."

"Maddie, you're scaring me….."

"Good. You should be scared." Another step closer. "Because there's only one way this ends now. Only one way to make sure you never interfere with my happiness again."

I backed against the frame. "You don't mean that," I said, fighting to keep my voice steady.

"Don't I? Goodbye... Lucille?" She lunged forward suddenly, her hands slamming into my chest.

The movement was so unexpected that I had no time to react. I felt myself falling backward from the frame bars, thirty floors of empty air opening beneath me.

The last thing I saw was Maddie's face above, her expression shifting from rage to relief.

And everything went dark.