Inside the cold, stark confines of the apartment, the air was thick with the scent of unwashed laundry and the sharp, metallic tang of fear. Warren West paced back and forth, his shadow stretching across the floor like a predatory beast. He stopped suddenly and loomed over Serena Montgomery, his eyes bloodshot and wide with a manic desperation.
"Stop acting like some tragic martyr, you little hypocrite," he spat, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and twisted satisfaction. "You’re a beautiful woman in a city full of sharks, and you expect me to believe you didn't climb your way to the top? How many 'clients' did you have to please to get Zenith Media to notice you? How many men did you sleep with to get that necklace?"
He laughed, a jagged, hollow sound that echoed off the bare w
