“Speak,” his deep, gravelly voice echoed through the speaker.
“Marcus,” I said, my voice remarkably steady despite the tears streaming down my face. “It’s me. Someone hurt Lily. Her new husband and his mother. They beat her, Marcus.

They threatened to kill our little girl for her wedding gift.”
There was a long, agonizing silence on the other end of the line. For five seconds, the only sound was the crackle of static. Then, I heard the distinct sound of a heavy metal drawer sliding open and the sharp, metallic clack of a firearm being chambered.
“Where are they right now?” Marcus asked, his voice completely devoid of human emotion. It was the tone of a predator that had just found its prey.

“The penthouse suite at the Grand Regency,” I replied.
He didn’t say goodbye. The line went dead.
I spent the next hour cleaning the blood from Lily’s face, rocking her to sleep on the sofa, and watching the security cameras surrounding my property. I knew Marcus. I knew that once he was set in motion, there was no stopping him.
At exactly 5:00 AM, my phone buzzed with a text message from an unknown number. It contained a single video file. When I opened it, my breath caught in my throat. It was security footage from the Grand Regency’s private elevator. The video showed Julian and Beatrice being dragged out into the rainy alleyway behind the hotel by three large men in dark suits. Julian was crying, his face unrecognizable, begging for mercy. Standing directly in front of them was Marcus, looking as calm as a man reading the morning newspaper.
He bent down, whispered something into Julian’s ear that made the young man physically convulse with fear, and then looked directly up at the security camera, knowing I would see it.

He raised a single finger to his lips, telling me to keep silent, before the video feed suddenly cut to black.