At his confused face, I flashed him a sweet smile before slapping him across the already battered cheek of his. Hard enough to have my hand throb in pain. He hissed out a curse.

“This.” My hands were itching to do this since I found out his truth.

His furious eyes snapped to me. “You bitch!”

Snarling, as he stepped forward, raising his cuffed hands at me, I flinched away. But before he could hit me, a punch landed on his cheek, the same one I just slapped, sending him to the ground.

“Keep your filthy hands to yourself if you don’t want me to fucking pluck them out of your body!” Ace bellowed, standing before me, shielding me from any harm. With eyes blazing with fury, shoulders rigid, he glared down at Arthur with wrath.

Spitting out blood, Arthur went to stand up again, but another harsh kick of Ace threw him on his back. A grunt of pain left his mouth.

When Ace went to hit him again, I held him back, at the same time an officer took Arthur away from Ace’s reach. Tugging him up, they held him back.

“You think you won sending me behind the bars? You’re wrong! No one can keep me here for long! I’ll get out and finish what I started. I’ll kill you both, you pieces of shit!” he hissed, struggling in the officer’s hold.

Ace tried to move to him again, but I pulled him back, running my hand on his chest.

“Ace, calm down. He’s just trying to provoke you. You and I both know he’s just barking out of rage. He knows he can’t do anything anymore,” I said in a calm tone.

“How dare he try to hurt you again!”

He tried to move away from my grip, but I stood before him. “Don’t take the law into your own hands. The police will take care of him.”

“She’s right, Mr. Valencian. We’ll take care of him. You don’t need to get your hands dirty with his blood,” one of the officers agreed.

Then Arthur’s mocking laughter echoed throughout the small office. “What a pussycat! I knew you had become a slave of this bitch the moment you made her an equal owner of everything. Everything that I owned! Everything that should’ve been mine!”

Growling, Ace moved me away from his path and stormed towards him. Arthur’s legs stumbled back as Ace raised his hand. Then he stopped. A chilling smile tugged at his lips. Stepping closer to him, he fixed his orange jumpsuit a little at his shoulders and looked directly into his eyes.