After Prison, I Became the Apex of the Stars

CHAPTER 5

Gwen's words hung in the air like smoke from a cheap cigarette, and the woman standing in the doorway let them settle for exactly two seconds before her expression went from cold to something that could freeze water in a pipe.

"Who are you?" Agatha asked, and her voice carried the quiet precision of someone who asks questions not because they need the answer but because they want the other person to hear how small they sound giving it.

Gwen looked Agatha up and down with the lazy contempt of a woman who has spent her entire life measuring other women by their usefulness and finding most of them lacking. 

"Who am I? Who are you, sweetheart? Strutting into someone else's property with bodyguards like you're some kind of queen when you're nothing but a cheap little tramp who probably spread her legs to afford that dress." She flicked her wrist toward the door. "Get out. Get out before I call the police and have you arrested for trespassing, you worthless little insect."

Something changed in Agatha's face, and it wasn't anger exactly, it was the slow, almost fascinated disbelief of someone who has lived at the very top of a city's power structure and has genuinely never encountered this level of ignorance aimed in her direction.

 She laughed, and the sound was short and sharp and completely without humor.

"I have sat across the table from governors and generals and men who control the economies of entire nations, and not one of them has ever spoMarcus to me the way you just did," Agatha said, tilting her head slightly as if she were studying a species of insect she had never seen before and wasn't sure deserved to exist. "So I'm genuinely curious what makes you think you have the right to stand there and talk to me like that. What exactly do you think gives you that kind of authority?"

Gwen straightened her spine and lifted her chin so high it was a wonder she could still see anything in front of her.

 "My daughter is Arya Lewis. We are the Clarke family, and our company is going public next month, which means we will officially be a third-tier family in this city." 

She said the words third-tier like she was announcing a coronation, like the syllables themselves should make everyone in the room bow. 

"And on top of that, my daughter is currently dating Fred Gordon, the heir to the Gordon family, which is a second-tier family with connections that stretch across the entire state. So yes, I have every right to be arrogant, and I have every right to tell a little tramp like you to get out of my sight."

Agatha stared at Gwen for a long moment, and then she started laughing again, but this time the laugh was genuine and warm and utterly devastating because it was the laugh of someone who has just been told something so ridiculous that pity is the only appropriate response.

"A second-tier family," Agatha repeated, letting the words roll around in her mouth like she was tasting cheap wine and trying to be polite about it. "And a soon-to-be third-tier family. You walked into this house and insulted me, threatened me, called me names that a gutter rat would be ashamed to use, because your daughter is dating someone from a second-tier family and your little company is about to become third-tier?"

"You think that's funny?" Gwen's face was turning red.

"I think it's the saddest thing I've heard in months." Agatha took one step forward, and the four bodyguards behind her shifted their weight in unison like a machine preparing to engage. "My name is Agatha Smith. I am the eldest daughter of the Smith family. First-tier. The actual first tier, not the kind you're aspiring to reach in your wildest fantasies. Under normal circumstances, a crawling little bottom-feeder from a family like yours wouldn't even be qualified to pour my tea, let alone stand in the same room as me and open her filthy mouth."

The color drained from Gwen's face so fast she looked like someone had pulled a stopper from the base of her neck, and beside her Luigi's puffed up chest deflated like a balloon that had just met a needle.

Agatha didn't wait for either of them to recover. She waved her hand with the casual authority of someone swatting away a fly. "Throw them out. I have important matters to discuss with Mr. Collins and I've already wasted more words on these two than they deserve."

The bodyguards moved forward, and Luigi stepped in front of his mother with his chest out and his finger pointed at the nearest guard like a man who has watched too many action movies and genuinely believes that anger is a substitute for ability.

"Don't you dare touch me," Luigi snarled, and his voice cracked on the last word which ruined whatever effect he'd been going for. "Do you have any idea who I am? My future brother-in-law is Fred Gordon, and if you lay a single finger on me I will have him destroy every single one of you. He will bury you so deep your own families won't be able to find your bodies."