Chapter 6
755words
Alex stumbled in looking haggard. Seeing her, he paused briefly before his face hardened into impatient condescension.
"You made everyone extremely uncomfortable last night, Lena," he said, yanking at his tie.
Lena ignored his accusation. Her eyes darted past him to the empty hallway, then to the bare desk in the study. Dread bloomed in her chest like wildfire.
"Where's my camera?" Her voice rasped from the sleepless night.
Alex hesitated, avoiding her eyes as he walked to the kitchen for water. "Oh, that."
"Where is it?" Lena rose and approached him deliberately.
Alex sipped his water, leaned against the counter, and spoke with deliberate casualness: "Chloe was pretty upset last night. She's into photography too, you know. So I 'lent' it to her to cheer her up. Once she's feeling better, I'll get it back for you."
He added: "It's not like you need it right now anyway, right?"
Time froze. Lena watched Alex's lips move, her brain struggling to process his words. He had given away David's camera—her father's legacy—to Chloe for "cheering up."
Blood rushed to her head. She felt no anger—only an extreme, surreal coldness.
Without a word, she turned and grabbed her car keys from the shoe cabinet.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Alex's voice hardened with warning.
Lena didn't look back. She asked just one question: "Her studio address."
Chloe's studio occupied an old warehouse in a gentrified art district, with massive windows and paint-splattered canvases littering the floor. When Lena pushed open the door, Chloe stood barefoot in a paint-stained white shirt, listening to vinyl.
The Hasselblad sat carelessly atop a paint bucket by the window.
Seeing Lena, Chloe showed no surprise—only a victorious smile. "Well, found your way here, did you?"
Lena ignored her, marched straight to the window, and grabbed the camera.
"Put that down!" Chloe lunged forward, grabbing for it. "Alex gave that to me! He promised to buy me a new one, but he knows I love vintage things! This is my consolation prize!"
"Back off." Lena's voice could have frozen flame.
"You bitter bitch!" Chloe snarled, provoked by the murderous look in Lena's eyes. "You already have him—must you take the one thing he gave me?!"
They grappled violently. Lena clutched the camera to her chest while Chloe scratched and clawed like a wild animal. During the struggle, the worn strap snapped, and Chloe wrenched the camera body away.
Under Lena's horrified gaze, Chloe's face twisted into cruel triumph.
"If I can't have it," she screamed, "neither will you!"
With all her strength, she smashed the Hasselblad—that vessel of two generations' memories—onto the concrete floor.
CRACK!
A sickening crash, like the end of the world.
The lens shattered, the viewfinder flew off, the black metal body splintered into pieces.
Lena's mind went completely blank.
She stared at the fragments, then slowly—very slowly—raised her eyes to Chloe. That look made Chloe shudder involuntarily.
The next second, Lena lunged like a silent predator, grabbed Chloe's hair, and slammed her head against the gallery wall.
"AHHH!"
Chloe screamed as blood instantly streamed from her forehead.
At that moment, the studio door burst open. Alex rushed in, his eyes widening at the blood on Chloe's face and the expressionless madness in Lena's eyes.
"Lena! Have you lost your mind?!" He charged forward and slammed Lena against the wall.
Lena stumbled from his shove but didn't even acknowledge him. She dropped to her knees and reached with trembling hands, desperately trying to reassemble the broken pieces. Glass shards sliced her fingertips, blood mixing with dust on the floor.
"Stop it!" Alex grabbed her wrists and roared. "It's destroyed! You can't fix it!"
His words unlocked the floodgates of her emotions. She trembled violently as silent tears streamed down her face.
Seeing her face streaked with blood and tears, Alex showed a flicker of panic before irritation took over. "It's just an old camera! I'll buy you a new one—the latest model! Are you seriously losing it over this?!"
—Just an old camera.
Those words snapped Lena's last thread of restraint.
She looked up with pure hatred and slapped Alex with all her might. Her blood smeared across his shocked face.
Then, under his incredulous stare, she pulled the massive diamond from her finger and, without a glance, tossed it into a bucket of green paint.
"We're done, Alex," she said.
