When It Finally Snows in Manhattan Chapter 04

When It Finally Snows in Manhattan Chapter 04

My heart clenched violently. Without thinking, I rushed to the awards ceremony as fast as I could.

When I got there, Julian was about to hand the trophy to Yvonne, who was draped in a haute couture gown.

They looked like a perfect couple.

I showed up with no makeup, my hair a mess, completely out of place in that solemn, elegant atmosphere.

Julian on stage wore a smirk, probably thinking I’d regretted my decision overnight and had come to openly beg him to take me back.

But he was about to be disappointed.

Under everyone’s scornful gazes, I walked step by step toward Yvonne, my eyes red. “What did you do to my mom? I won’t let you touch her!”

My voice was shaking. I looked terrifyingly unhinged.

People jeered and mocked. Julian’s face finally lost all composure, and he shoved me hard, making me stumble.

“Claire, you’re scaring her!”

I crashed off the stage in disgrace, my insides jarred so hard they nearly shattered.

Julian instinctively took a step forward, but Yvonne hurried down and helped me up.

“Claire, I have no clue what you’re talking about. You’re just embarrassing Julian—please, stop.”

After saying that, she pulled me close and whispered in my ear, “Sharp, aren’t you? You actually figured out I was the one who took your precious mother. So go on—guess what I did with her.”

Yvonne smiled brilliantly, but I was the only one who could see the vicious light in her eyes.

My heart raced with panic. I couldn’t take it anymore and clamped my hands around her throat, squeezing hard. “Yvonne, give me back my mother!”

In the next instant, a massive force tore me away, and an unexpected slap cracked across my face.

Julian stood there, his raised hand trembling, his face dark and terrifying.

“I’ve already cut you more slack today than you deserve. You’d trash your dignity over a trophy? You’re so damn pathetic.”

In his eyes, I was nothing but a crazy, humiliating train wreck.

But my mind buzzed, consumed with imagining what my mother was enduring right now.

The next second, I snatched the trophy from Julian’s hands and charged at Yvonne with pure fury.

“Ah!”

The blow landed on Julian’s back instead.

He shoved hard, and the trophy’s sharp wing sliced into my face.

Blood stained the carpet. The trophy clattered to the floor.

“Claire, have you lost your damn mind?!”

Where he couldn’t see, Yvonne flashed the remote control in her hand at me.

A bomb timer, counting down from three minutes.

She pulled out a handkerchief to wipe my blood, her smile taunting and triumphant. ““Your precious mother’s in the car outside right now. The same one that crippled her. I bought it back just for this.”

My world spun violently.

I staggered, desperate to run outside, but Julian’s guards suddenly blocked me in.

Julian’s demonic roar came from behind me. “You put your hands on someone and think you can just walk away? Get back here. Now. And grovel.”

At the same time, the bomb attached to my mother might as well have been ticking against my heart.

Tick, tock…

I didn’t care about anything else. I dropped to my knees and knocked my head on the floor, my resentful gaze sweeping over both of them.

Julian looked stunned and frozen. He reached out to grab me.

But I turned and sprinted toward the car outside without looking back.

Watching my desperate figure, Julian’s heart sank deeper and deeper.

Yvonne pulled his attention back. “The award ceremony’s about to start.”

“Alright.”

The man had just turned, still hesitant, when a deafening boom erupted. In the next instant, a searing blast wave surged outward.