Chapter 3

Pushed past his limit by Elena's defiance, Alonza raised his heavy right hand and swung it hard toward her left cheek.

Elena's eyes turned to ice. A fraction of a second before his palm touched her skin, she leaned back half an inch and snapped her right hand up, clamping her fingers around Alonza's wrist.

A sharp, numbing pain shot straight up Alonza's arm as Elena's thumb dug precisely into his radial nerve. His hand hung frozen in midair, completely unable to move down another inch.

"Touching me comes with a price, Mr. Hendrix," Elena said, her voice dropping to a low, lethal whisper.

Cold sweat broke out across Alonza's forehead. He tried to yank his arm back, shocked by the iron grip of the slender girl in front of him. "Let go of me! Have you lost your mind?"

Eula screamed and jumped up from the sofa. "Elena! Are you trying to hit your own father? You lunatic!"

Elena shoved his arm forward and let go. Alonza stumbled backward three steps, his lower back slamming hard into the heavy leather armrest of the sofa before he caught his balance.

Preston's face darkened with rage. He lunged forward from the fireplace. "You dare lay a finger on Daddy under our roof? You're asking for a beating!"

He reached out with both large hands to grab Elena by the collar and slam her to the floor.

Elena sidestepped his clumsy lunge with effortless speed. As Preston's momentum carried him past her, she hooked her right foot behind his supporting ankle and kicked sharply.

Preston lost his balance instantly. He pitched forward, both knees crashing down onto the hard marble floor with a sickening thud. He groaned, clutching his twisted ankle.

Carley clapped both hands over her mouth and shrank back into the corner of the sofa, her fake tears forgotten as she stared at Preston on the floor.

Without looking down at Preston, Elena turned around and walked calmly toward the front foyer.

Footsteps pounded down the grand staircase. Chase Hendrix, the twenty-two-year-old second son known for his violent temper, vaulted over the bottom railing and sprinted in front of the double front doors, blocking her exit.

Chase slammed his palm against the brass door handle and glared down at Elena. "You think you can hurt my family and just walk out? Kneel and beg Carley for forgiveness right now, or you're not taking a single step out of this house!"

Elena stopped five feet away, looking up at Chase without a trace of fear.

Behind her, Alonza rubbed his throbbing wrist, his face purple with humiliation. "Lock the doors! Call the estate guards to drag her back to the cellar until she learns how to behave!"

"Yes!" Eula shrieked, clutching her chest. "Call Dr. Miller to bring a tranquilizer syringe! She has gone completely insane!"

Peeking from behind her mother's arm, Carley let a tiny, vicious smile curl the corner of her mouth.

Elena turned her head slightly, taking in the gilded walls of the mansion where she had lived like a servant for three years. In her last life, she had given up a full scholarship to Johns Hopkins Medical School just to keep peace in this house, only to end up butchered on their operating table.

She raised her right hand slightly. Between her middle and index fingers glinted a hair-thin, three-inch titanium acupuncture needle pulled from her coat lining.

Seeing her stand still, Chase sneered and cracked his knuckles. "Scared now? Too late! Get over there and kowtow to Carley!"

Elena's lips curved into a cold smile. "Scared? I was just wondering if a pack of parasites like you is worth getting my hands dirty."

Blood rushed to Chase's head. He pulled his right fist back and threw a heavy punch straight at Elena's nose. "Die, you ungrateful bitch!"

Elena didn't retreat. She ducked under the swinging arm, her left hand slapping his wrist aside while her right hand drove the fine needle deep into the acupoint at his right elbow.

Chase felt a jolt like high-voltage electricity shoot through his arm. His entire right side went instantly numb, his heavy fist dropping limp in midair.

Before he could scream, Elena pivoted into his chest, grabbed his belt and shoulder, and threw all one hundred and eighty pounds of him over her hip.

Chase flew through the air and crashed down onto the solid oak shoe bench in the foyer. The heavy wood splintered into pieces under his weight. Chase howled in agony, rolling among the broken wood shards while clutching his deadened right arm.

Dead silence fell over the main hall. Even the maids stopped breathing.

Elena stepped over a piece of broken oak, reached out, and unlatched the heavy deadbolt on the front door. Freezing night wind and rain blew straight into the hall.