Supreme Authority

Chapter 12

Olivia staggered back, one hand clutching her burning cheek, breath caught in her throat.

Her eyes went wide as she stared at the stranger who had just struck her.

“You—you crazy bitch! Who the hell do you think you are?!” she shouted, voice cracking with fury.

Gasps rippled through the hospital parking lot. Nurses froze mid-step. Orderlies and patients stood stunned. Even the security guards traded uneasy glances.

The woman didn’t flinch. She stepped forward, the sharp click of her heels slicing through the silence. Her voice was ice.

“Someone who doesn’t tolerate filth like you,” she said. “You spew lies so easily, I doubt you’d recognize the truth if it hit harder than I just did.”

Olivia’s lips trembled, but nothing came out. The weight of every stare pressed down on her harder than the slap had.

Beside her, Jack groaned on the pavement, both hands cupping his groin, his voice a broken whimper.

“Urghhh… my… god…”

The head of security wiped sweat from his brow and stepped forward, his voice uncertain. “Ma’am, I—uh—I don’t know what authority you have to—”

She turned slowly, her gaze cutting him in half. “If you’re not blind, move.”

“I—I wasn’t trying to—”

Her head tilted, impatience flashing. “Don’t make me repeat myself.”

The man swallowed, then stepped back quickly. Something in her presence screamed danger, and he wasn’t about to test it.

Alex stood nearby, gun dangling loosely in his hand, eyes locked on her. “And you are?”

Before she could answer, the sharp tap of a cane cut through the air.

Karen Fairchild appeared, flanked by her aides. Her mouth twisted sourly as she advanced.

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?” Karen demanded. “This is Fairchild business.”

The stranger didn’t so much as blink. “Not anymore.”

Karen’s brow arched, her voice dripping with venom. “Answer me properly, or I’ll have my lawyers strip you bare for that disrespect.”

The woman allowed herself a faint smile. When she spoke, her voice carried across the crowd.

“Cassandra Dupont.”

The effect was immediate. A murmur erupted from the onlookers.

“Dupont? Did she say Dupont?”

“The Dupont family? No way…”

“They’ve got ties at the top. What’s she doing here?”

Karen’s eyes narrowed. “You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?” Cassandra replied smoothly. “My family’s name carries weight in places you can’t even crawl into. Bluffing isn’t necessary.”

Karen’s lip curled. “This hospital isn’t your family’s property.”

“And it isn’t yours either,” Cassandra shot back. “But entitlement seems to run deep in your veins.”

Olivia, face red with rage, jabbed a finger at Alex. “You don’t get it! He’s a psycho—a rapist! He attacked us, nearly killed Jack!”

“Yeah!” Jack wheezed, still sprawled on the ground. “He had a gun! He could’ve killed me—I’m practically dying already!”

“Enough.”

Cassandra raised her hand.

She hadn’t shouted, but her voice crushed the noise like a stone hitting glass. Silence followed.

“I didn’t come here to play judge,” she said, her eyes sweeping the crowd. “But I know exactly what it looks like when spoiled children try to play the victim.”

Karen sneered, her lip curling like a blade. “And you think you know him? You don’t have the slightest idea who that stray dog really is.”

“Whether I know him or not doesn’t matter.”

Cassandra’s heels clicked against the pavement as she closed the space between her and Alex, calm, deliberate, unshaken.

“You’re Alexander Morningstar, aren’t you?”

Alex gave a single nod. “Yes.”

“Good.” Cassandra’s gaze cut briefly toward Olivia, then lingered on Karen. “Then let’s go. Staying here is pointless. People like them…” she tilted her chin in their direction, “…only get louder the longer you stand around.”

Olivia’s mouth dropped, her face flushing crimson. “You—”

“Careful,” Cassandra interrupted without sparing her a glance. “Keep shrieking like that and your voice might snap.”

Her eyes slid over to Karen, sweeping from the silver cane to her scowling face with icy disdain.

“And you, Mrs. Fairchild… you should be resting that cane instead of brandishing it like a weapon. At your age, you’d think you’d value what little time you have left instead of wasting it on public tantrums.”

Karen’s nostrils flared, knuckles whitening on the cane. “You insolent little—”

“Yes, yes,” Cassandra cut in flatly. “I’ve heard it all before. Skip to the part where you move out of my way.”

Karen didn’t answer. Her sharp gaze darted to Alex instead.

“You think this changes anything?” she hissed. “Caesar will fix all of this when he wakes up. You’ll be nothing then.”

Alex’s voice cut through like a knife. “Is he awake?”

The question froze the air. All eyes swung to him. His tone was quiet, but it carried a cold weight that made the hair on necks stand.

Karen stiffened, lips parting but no words came.

Cassandra answered for her. “No. He’s still unconscious. Dying, from what I’ve heard.”

Alex’s face hardened. His voice dropped into something lower, darker.

“Then this is the last time I set foot in this place.”

Karen’s eyes widened. “What are—”

He silenced her with a single glance that could cut through bone.

“You dragged me into this,” Alex said, voice steady, almost calm. “You tried to humiliate me. Hurt me. Frame me. While my grandfather lay upstairs, dying.”

He looked down at the pistol in his hand. The crowd gasped. A guard twitched toward his holster.

But Alex only rolled the gun in his palm, then let it fall. The weapon clattered against the concrete at the guard’s feet, the sound sharp as a verdict.

“Your job,” he said coldly. “Try doing it next time.”

No one moved. No one dared.

Cassandra stepped aside, giving him the path. A black Rolls-Royce slid up to the curb, engine humming low. One of her men swung open the rear door.

Alex stepped in without a word, without a glance back.

Cassandra followed, but Olivia’s shrill voice cracked the silence.

“You’ll regret this! Both of you!”

“Close it,” Cassandra ordered, her eyes forward.

The guard shut the door before Olivia could spew another word.

The car rolled away, leaving the chaos behind.

Inside, Alex leaned back, eyes locked on the passing streets. His expression didn’t flicker—no anger, no fear, no triumph. Nothing. He sat like a sealed vault, unreadable.

Cassandra studied him from the corner of her eye. Most men revealed themselves quickly—too quickly. But him… he was impenetrable. A locked box.

What is he? she wondered. Why won’t he even look at me?

Her grandfather’s words echoed in her mind, vague and insistent.

“My grandfather doesn’t send me after just anyone,” she said at last, breaking the silence. Her voice was calm, probing.

She watched him closely, searching for the smallest twitch of his mouth, the flicker of an eye—anything.

But there was nothing.

“All I was told,” she continued, a faint smile tugging at her lips, “was some nonsense about you being a miraculous healer.” She leaned back, studying him like a puzzle.

“Guess we’ll see if that’s true…”