The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 822

Alex did not move.

He sat slumped in the corner of the cellar with his head against the stones, and in the light from the doorway his face was perfectly white.

"No," Serena said. "No, no, no."

She was on her knees beside him before she knew she had crossed the floor. Along the walls the family pressed back and screamed, sure the Brotherhood had come for them at last: the Baroness, Gideon, Marissa, the aunts.

"It's me," Serena said, without turning round. "It's only me."

She put her hand on Alex's cheek. It was warm.

Then, from somewhere deep in his chest, came a long, slow, perfectly peaceful snore.

"He's asleep," Serena whispered. "He's only asleep."

"He's what?" said the Baroness.

Nobody could believe it.

"We sat in the dark all night," the Baroness said slowly, "arguing over which of us they would kill first, and whose fault it was. And he slept. Like a baby."

"He sleeps out in the dog kennels," an aunt said faintly. "Of course he can sleep in a cellar."

Somebody laughed. Then they were all laughing, shakily, the way the house always laughed at him. Truly an idiot.

Serena did not laugh. "Alex," she said softly. "Wake up."

His eyes opened. He yawned. "Serena. Did they leave a light on for you? I asked them to. You don't like the dark."

Behind her, the light from the hall lay across the cellar steps. She took his hand and did not let go.

They went up into the hall, and one by one they stopped. The coats along the walls. The skull rings. Connor at the foot of the stairs, and Curtis Bennett with his back to his brother's coffin.

"Who did this?" the Baroness whispered. "Who in this world could do this?"

Preston looked down at the rope round his wrist. The knot had come undone. He had kicked and pulled in the dark, hadn't he? And the rope had given.

"Was it you, Serena?" he asked.

"No."

"Patricia? Was it you?"

"Hell, no."

Preston smiled. "Of course it's me. And now I will control this whole place."

"You said you never called your friends!" Patricia cried.

"You told Curtis you were drunk in your own bed that night!" an aunt shrieked.

"Yes! Because I cleaned them myself!" Preston stepped over a dead man's hand into the middle of the hall. "Don't touch their phones. Don't touch their money. They all belong to me now! I am a real hero! Didn’t you all see it?"

Serena was the only one not looking at Preston. She was looking at her husband, who was yawning.

Within a day, the whole coast was telling the story. "Preston Tiffany," said the radio in the Tiffany kitchen, "the man who broke the Brotherhood alone."

Nobody asked the idiot anything.

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