The Almighty Dominance (by Sunshine) novel Chapter 826

Patricia came back across the yard with the stick, thick as a broom handle and dark with old rain.

"Patricia," Gideon said. "What are you doing with that?"

"Helping," Patricia said.

"Put it down," Serena said quietly.

"Kneel, and I will."

"No."

Patricia's mouth went thin. She took the stick in both hands and swung it low and hard at the backs of Serena's legs, with all her weight behind it.

Nobody was looking at the idiot.

By the shards, Alex flicked a little stone without looking up, the way a man brushes off a fly.

The stone hit Patricia's knuckles with a sharp little crack.

Her hand jerked. The stick swept past Serena's legs by a finger's width and kept going, round and up, whistling.

It smacked Patricia full in her own face.

Thwack.

For one second the yard was perfectly silent.

Patricia swayed, a red stripe rising across her nose. Her lipstick had gone sideways.

"Oh!" Marissa put both hands over her mouth. "Not on the face, Patricia! You have to be seen!"

Cordelia coughed into her glove.

"Did she..." Gideon whispered. "Did she just hit herself?"

"Is it a game?" Alex asked from the cobbles, with great interest. "I think you lost."

"You!" Patricia swung round, eyes streaming, and pointed the stick at Serena. "You pushed it! You grabbed it!"

"I didn't move," Serena said.

"She didn't, darling," Cordelia said, not quite steadily. "We all saw. You hit yourself."

"Should I fetch some ice?" Gideon asked.

"Fetch nothing!" Patricia shrieked.

"Ice costs money anyway, Gideon," Marissa said.

"The stick's very slippery," Alex told the dog. "Like the vase."

Her nose had started to bleed. She flung the stick down.

"Your nose is bleeding, Patricia," Serena said quietly.

"Forget kneeling! I don't care any more!" she shrieked. "Pay me. Now. Every cent, Serena, or I swear I'll..."

Serena looked down at her phone. Her thumb moved toward the button.

Alex had picked up one of the curved pieces of china and was turning it over in his fingers.

"Serena," he said slowly. "Why does this one have a sticker?"

Serena's thumb stopped.

"Give me that!" Patricia snatched the shard. Half a white price sticker clung to it: "Harbour Mar."

She laughed, too loudly. "A sticker! Dealers put stickers on everything, idiot. Fake? You think a man who sleeps with the dogs knows antiques?"

"I didn't say fake," Alex said. "You did."

Cordelia snorted. Marissa looked at the shard, then at Patricia, and then at the shard again.

Serena's voice came out level, her bench voice.

"Patricia. Where did Grandma buy it?"

"What?"

"Grandma's million-dollar vase. Where did she buy it?"

"From a dealer," Patricia said. "In the capital. Obviously."

"Which dealer?"

"How should I know which dealer? She doesn't tell me where she shops."

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