When Ryan flew back to Boston, it was pouring rain.
Boston rain was different from London – harsh and cold, battering against the windows of his family’s Beacon Hill townhouse like bullets.
When Ryan pushed open the door to the guest room where they’d been keeping Nina, he was hit with the stench of alcohol mixed with broken glass and spilled perfume.
The expensive crystal chandelier had been smashed to pieces, designer rugs soaked with red wine, and the oil paintings on the walls were slashed beyond repair.
Nina had done all this after they’d locked her up.
She was curled up in the corner, hair matted to her face, looking like a feral animal. When she saw Ryan walk in, her eyes lit up with hope before quickly turning venomous.
“Ryan! You finally came back… did Sienna dump you again? Is that why you’re here?” Her voice turned shrill and nasty. “She’s such a fucking bitch!”
“Shut
up.” Ryan’s voice was colder than the rain outside.
He bent down and picked up her phone from the wreckage. The screen showed her Twitter account, still logged in to where she’d been posting lies about Sienna and Daniel with stolen photos and vicious captions that had gone viral.
“You did this.” It wasn’t a question. His grip on the phone was so tight the screen started cracking.
Nina shrank back at the look in his eyes, but she wasn’t backing down. “So what if I did? She stole everything from me! Why shouldn’t I make her suffer?!”
That was it. Ryan completely snapped.
He grabbed a handful of Nina’s greasy hair and started dragging her toward the basement.
She screamed and clawed at his arms, leaving bloody scratches, but he didn’t even flinch as he hauled her down into the cold, dark room below.
SPLASH!
A bucket of ice water crashed down on Nina’s head, instantly turning her into a shivering,
Chapter 18
hypothermic mess. Her teeth chattered so violently she couldn’t form words.
Freezing water soaked through her clothes and hair, making her bones ache with cold.
“Awake now?” Ryan crouched in front of her, his eyes like poisoned knives.
He studied her with disgust. “Those hands of yours seem to only know how to destroy things.”
He grabbed her wrist with crushing force. “First you hacked Sienna’s applications and ruined her future. Now you’re spreading lies to destroy her reputation… How fucking dare you?”
Feeling the genuine threat in his grip, Nina finally got scared.
She couldn’t look him in the eyes anymore, tears mixing with ice water as her voice shook uncontrollably. “Ryan, I was wrong… I’m so sorry… please forgive me, I’ll never do it again…”
“Forgive you?” Ryan laughed, but there was zero warmth in it.
“Did anyone forgive Sienna when you destroyed her life?”
He stood up and gave a cold order to the security guys waiting by the door: “Break her hands.”
“NO! DON’T!”
Seeing that he was serious, Nina screamed in terror, trying to crawl backward.
“RYAN! Please! I really know I was wrong! Don’t hurt me!”
The guards moved forward emotionlessly one pinning her shoulders, the other picking up a metal pipe from the corner.
CRACK
Two sickening sounds of bones snapping echoed through the basement, followed by Nina’s blood–curdling screams.
Her wrists twisted at unnatural angles, blood instantly pooling on the cold concrete floor.
Ryan stood there watching Nina writhe and scream on the floor, his face completely empty of emotion.
These were the hands that had typed in the commands to destroy Sienna’s college applications. These were the fingers that had posted those vicious lies online. And because of this psychotic bitch, he’d pushed away the only person who’d ever really mattered to him.
red to him.
Chapter 18
The rage burned hotter.
“Not enough,” his voice was rough. “Keep going.”
The guards exchanged glances but followed orders, raising their weapons again.
The sickening thuds of metal on flesh mixed with Nina’s weakening cries, echoing through the concrete basement until her voice was barely a whisper and she was curled up like a broken doll, blood pooling around her mouth.
Ryan turned and walked away without looking back.
Behind him, Nina’s pathetic whimpers grew fainter as the beating continued.
He drove straight to Harvard and slammed a folder of evidence onto the Dean’s desk – screenshots of Nina’s hacking confession, bank records of her paying people to spread rumors, every single lie she’d posted about Sienna.
“I want Nina Park expelled immediately and her crimes made public,” he said with terrifying calm. “If the university doesn’t handle this, these documents will be on every news outlet by tonight.”
The Dean looked at the evidence, then at the cold fury in Ryan’s eyes, and nodded.
Walking out of the administration building, rain was still pouring down. Ryan looked up at the gray sky, but felt no satisfaction from his revenge – just this endless, hollow ache.
He’d destroyed Nina, but it wouldn’t bring Sienna back.
Like this cold Boston rain, no amount of punishment could wash away his regret or heal the heart he’d shattered with his own stupidity.
2015
