The cold metal pressed against Rhea's skin even as the two men dragged her out of the company building.
"Stop, please!" Her voice broke, as she choked on nothing but cold air. She looked like a total mess—rather, a total BLOODY mess—with her ragged looking hair and blood stained dress and hands.
"I didn't do anything I swear. Grandpa was already-" Tears clouded her vision, remembering the image of her grandfather's body going cold in her arms.
"We'll hear whatever you have to say when we get to the station, Miss Winters."
Saying that, the officer proceeded outside of the company building that was now thrown into chaos.
Cold air whipped through Rhea's skin the moment her feet reached outside. A mob of reporters swarmed around, barely kept at bay by the police men securing the area.
Sighting them, the reporters from the media yelled, their voice burning with endless questions.
"Miss Winters, could you explain what you were doing at the crime scene?"
"Miss Winters, what were your intentions for murdering Chairman Gregory? Wasn't he a close relative?"
"Can we take your silence as a yes to all the accusations leveled against you, Miss Winters?"
"Miss Winters!"
"Miss!"
Oh, how she wanted to yell at them to shut up!
But Rhea had lost her voice. The one family member she had treasured more than anything in the world just died. Right in her own arms with a knife plunged deep in his stomach.
Her feet moved against her will as she let the police men take her away.
Just as the officers were shuffling her into their vehicle, a particular question from one of the reporters pierced through her wall, reaching her ears.
"Will the rest of your family be giving their statements concerning the matter, Miss Winters?!"
Her family? Rhea's red eyes looked outside the car window just in time to see a stretcher pull out of the company building with her grandfather's body in it.
Her breath hitched, her shoulder hunching like she has been hit.
Only then, away from every peering eye did she allow herself weep. Her voice rang out in anguish and Rhea bit her hand, desperate to not make a sound.
The only one she had!
"Who gave you permission to leave me, grandfather?" Her heartbreaking sobs slipped through her lips as she covered her face with her hands, broken. "Who said it was okay to go?"
Her grandfather was her only backer and he had treasured her for as long as she had known him. As an illegitimate child, she was ill favoured by the rest of the family yet the old man had cared for her even more than his legitimate grandchildren. So much so that he had willed a huge part of the family's inheritance to her name.
Now that he was dead, she was defenseless. Her family would stop at nothing to ruin her now and ending up a suspect on this case was awful timing.
In a stroke of sour humor, she turned, her red eyes fixated outside. "Sure indeed" her sarcasm filled voice answered to a certain reporters question of earlier.
Her family will definitely give their statements but it will not be good!
A layer of ice spread against her heart at the realization that she was truly alone now.
"Wait till I'm out of this mess, Grandpa" her red eyes gleamed with a viciousness that words couldn't possibly begin to explain.
"Then both your killer and the family," her jaws clenched in a solemn promise. "I swear I'll make everyone pay!"