All Chapters of After Divorce, I Became the Architect of his Downfall : Chapter 21 - Chapter 24

Serena's POV The bone-chilling sea spray whipped across my face, mixing with the hot grease and soot that clung to my skin like a second coat of varnish.I stood rooted to the mud, my raw, bandaged hands locked around the cold iron crowbar as the heavy tinted window of the limousine glided down into the dark doorframe.Richard Voss sat in the plush leather interior, immaculate in a bespoke wool coat, his cold, reptilian eyes staring right through me as if I were nothing more than a stain on his windshield."You're making a catastrophic mistake, Serena," Richard said, his voice coming through an external speaker, smooth, quiet, and deadlier than a loaded gun. "Stealing state-flagged scrap metal off a commercial lot is a class-one felony.""It's not state scrap, Richard," I shouted back, stepping over a thick cable as the torch sparks showered down around my shoulders like falling stars. "It's Solomon Ashby’s private property, and we're taking back every single pound your forged papers

Serena's POV The cold sunrise breeze whipping off the bay carried the sharp, metallic tang of fresh sea salt and wet iron, stinging my chapped lips as I held the phone tight against my ear.My knuckles, bruised and crusted with dry black soot from Mateo’s forge, went bone-white around the plastic casing.The serene, golden light bathing the newly erected cantilever frame suddenly felt harsh and exposing, like a spotlight on a condemned stage."Diana," I spat, my voice dropping into a low, gravelly register that rasped painfully against my dry throat. "Richard’s already sitting in a federal vehicle, and your concrete trucks are impounded; give up the ghost."A low, soft laugh echoed through the receiver, smooth and chilling, like velvet sliding over broken glass."Richard was always so terribly crude, Serena," Diana murmured, her voice unhurried and dripping with quiet, toxic amusement. "He thought in terms of bulldozers, mud, and physical muscle, but he never understood how true powe