Trading Revenge For An Heir

Chapter 4

[Two Years Later]

“Drop the weapon, Ms. Harper,” a man in a dark suit said to the woman in front of him, his sharp eyes determined on her, especially the little girl she held close to her chest. “No one needs to get hurt.”

“Don’t. Don’t come close. Or I’ll cut her. I swear I will,” the woman stuttered, taking a small step back as she flicked her nervous eyes to all three men standing in front of her, waving the knife in her hand, warning them to take another step and watch the little girl die a horrible death.

The little girl continued to cry, her tears dampening the top of the woman. Not that the woman cared. Harper was too busy keeping her distance from the three men slowly approaching her. All of them held their guns out, waiting for her to make one wrong move and shoot her in the middle of the head.

Harper knew she was stuck. Out of all the alleys she could have picked after grabbing the girl from the car, she had to choose the one with the dead end. It must be her rotten fate.

But then again, none of this was planned. Or at least not as meticulously as she thought.

She was just so frustrated. All she wanted was to get him to pay attention to her. But he didn’t. He never did. Always ignoring her and disappointing her by picking someone else. What was it that she didn’t have? She was a beautiful woman in her prime. There were men who would do anything to have a minute of her time.

But not him. Not Sebastian Harrison.

She was so damn fed up with being rejected. She wanted him to suffer just as much as she did in the past ten years. She wanted him to understand her desperation.

Perhaps that’s why she followed him around, looking for a chance to get her hands on his lovely daughter—the daughter he doted on, the daughter he would do anything for. But could she convince him to give her a chance by using his daughter as a bargaining chip? Well, she was soon about to find out.

“Let go of her, Harper. We can talk this out,” the man in the dark suit said to her, trying his best to keep his calm and not provoke the hysterical woman to do anything stupid—like hurting his sweet little girl. “There’s no need to go so far.”

“You say that, Sebastian,” she scoffed, beads of sweat breaking out on her skin. “But you never keep your promises. Once I let your daughter go, you’ll go back to ignoring me and blocking me. And I can’t have that.”

Sebastian sighed carefully, his dark eyes shifting between the woman and his little girl.

Chloe seemed to be crying non-stop. She was ten, but she was smaller and weaker compared to the other kids her age. Harper probably knew that and was now using his daughter to get what she had obsessively wanted for the last decade: him.

It made him so mad. He wanted nothing more than to choke this woman to death for laying her filthy hands on his little girl. But Sebastian was smart enough to know that the safety of Chloe was much more important than his anger. He had to keep his calm. He had to handle this delicate situation expertly.

“What do you want, Harper? Just say it. I’ll make it happen. I promise,” he said to her confidently, hoping to distract her with a conversation so the bodyguards on either side of him could use that small window to neutralize her.

Harper took another step back, adjusting the girl in her arms. She grinned, looking completely crazed. “You know exactly what I want. Were ten years of pursuing not enough for you to get a hint? You’re not that stupid, Sebastian. The Sebastian Harrison I know and love and would do anything for is smart. Too smart, if I’m being honest.”

“You say you love me,” he said to her, coaxing her with a gentler tone. “But you still try to hurt the person I love the most. That’s not love, Harper. That’s manipulation.”

“So what?” she snapped, growing more unstable. “Do you think if I had any other choice I would resort to something so dangerous? Can’t you see that for one minute of your time, I’m putting my whole life at stake here? Why can’t you see that, Sebastian? Why do you have to hurt me every single time?” A sole tear dripped from her eye. “I just want you to see me.” She looked him in the eyes, her gaze softening. “Only me.”

Sebastian sighed.

He took a measured step forward, trying to maintain a calm demeanor. “Hurting Chloe won’t make me see you, Harper. It’ll only push me further away. But you have my attention now. I am here, aren’t I?” He took another cautious step forward, almost within her reach. “So why don’t you just let Chloe go, and we can go to that restaurant across the road and talk like two mature people. I have already cleared my schedule for tonight. We can have a good time. Think about it.”

Harper swallowed, suddenly speechless, not expecting him to give in so quickly. Her tightly wound shoulders seemed to have relaxed a tad, and instead of moving backward to create a safe distance between them, she paused and continued to stare him in the eyes, as if searching for sincerity.

Sebastian was confident that he almost had her.

He was wrong.

Harper noticed one of the guards behind him tightening his finger on the trigger. Her eyes widened in panic, and before she could control her movements, she ended up slashing Sebastian’s arm.

“Stay away from me. I said stay away from me!” Harper yelled at him. But when she noticed blood darkening his suit and spilling on his hand when he tried to press the wound, her eyes watered, and her legs shook. “No. I didn’t mean that. Sebastian, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry, baby.”

Sebastian stared at his wound, trying not to yell and scare Chloe more than she already was. She was the only one who mattered to him anymore. Once he made sure his little girl was safe, he wouldn’t waste another second tossing this crazed woman into an asylum, no matter what excuse her billionaire dad made this time.

He could see that hurting him wasn’t intended. Perhaps that’s why Harper looked as if she was about to faint. But the knife was still in her possession, and even though she wasn’t waving it at him anymore, she held it unconsciously pressed against his daughter’s back. His frown only deepened.

“It’s okay. I’m fine—” he was saying, trying to placate her, when something hit Harper from behind.

Sebastian thought he saw a pan.

Someone hit her with the back of a pan.

“What the hell?” Harper turned stiff. She turned to see who dared to attack her from behind and came face to face with a girl not older than twenty. “What—” She was saying when the girl hit her with the pan again, almost dislocating her jaw.

Harper’s grip on Chloe loosened, and Sebastian took it as his cue to yank his daughter away, hugging her tightly, instantly grateful for the intervention.

Harper’s head spun, her vision blurring. But she wasn’t going without a fight. Her anger grew tenfold. She charged at the girl with the knife in her hand.

The girl’s eyes widened, and she stumbled backwards, ready to use the pan again. But before she could, a shot echoed in the alleyway and made everyone freeze.

Harper dropped to the ground before the knife slipped from her grasp.