“I am calling off our engagement.” Aiden said, as soon as she walked into the locker room.

“What?” Myra froze in disbelief. “How can you say that?”

“And how can you do this to me?” He yelled in her face.

She stepped back, startled by his intensity and hurt at his tone.

“I don’t understand what you are talking about.”

“Just give me back my ring, Myra.” He said through his teeth. “This was the last straw.”

“What last straw?” Her voice came out weak, as she struggled to get past her confusion.

Why was he reacting so strongly to her just wanting to do her job?

“I am literally the only person for the job.” She said out loud, “Do you expect Major Lila to play a twenty-year-old college student?”

Aiden’s frown darkened, and he gripped her arm tightly, his eyes wild. “So you will not mind f*cking my own father then? For the team?”

“Father? What are you..” She paused as her mind traveled back to the meeting.

Dankworth! Her father had said something Dankworth.

Her eyes widened as she looked up at Aiden, finally understanding why he had reacted that way to her accepting the role.

“Babe, I’m sorry. I really had no idea.” She said quickly.

“Liar!” he threw her hand off, walked over to the nearest locker, and punched it.

“Aiden.” She called in hurt disbelief as she watched him crash out. “Who do you think I am? Why do you think I would do that to you?”

“Of course you..” He stopped, and then turned back to look at her. He regarded her for a few seconds then walked up to her.

He cupped her chin on both sides and leaned down.

“Go tell your father you decline the role.”

Myra stared up at him, and paused only one second before she said, “OK.”

He sighed and brought his nose against hers.

“I’m sorry about Professor Dankworth. I did not make the connection till just now.” She said, even as he began to gently brush her lips with his.

She would never have even thought about accepting it if she remembered that Callaghan Dankworth was Aiden’s supposed father.

The man had denied paternity since the incident happened when he was a sixteen-year-old highschooler, but Aiden’s mother insisted he got her pregnant till date.

Myra closed her eyes as Aiden gripped her hips, and his kiss deepened.

***

She knew her father could see her through the one-way glass surrounding his office, because even before she knocked on the door, she heard his deep rumble from within.

“Come.”

She walked in and stood at attention.

He watched her as he stubbed his cigarette out.

“What is it, Miss Shaw?” He always addressed her formally at work, although their relationship was different outside.

“Dad.” She cleared her throat and corrected herself. “Chief. I have to turn down Professor Cal's case.”

Her father did not look surprised. It was almost like he had been expecting it.

He stared at her, and she looked down at her boots nervously.

He could make her do the job and his decision would be final, but then she would be hurting Aiden.

She hoped his softer, fatherly side was dominant today, and he would not force her into this.

“Go think about it, Miss Shaw. If by tomorrow evening you still do not want to do it. I will let you off.”

She was about to tell him her decision was final but thought the better of it.

He was letting her off easily, there was no need to provoke him.

“Yes chief.” She saluted and turned to the door. She could always tell him tomorrow that she would really not do it.

She walked past Aiden, standing at his office door as she went back to her desk.

She made an OK sign with her hand.

The right side of his lip curled up in a satisfied smile, and he went back to his office.

Myra spent the rest of the day with her head bent to work.

She studied the details of the marital rape case in front of her, mentally scheduling to go check out the crime scene the next day for clues.

Something about the victim’s statement here was definitely not adding up.

Hours flew by and her shift soon ended. She was one of the first people out the door.

She hurried to her car, excited about the idea she had in mind to properly apologize to Aiden tonight.

“Someone seems happy.” Jess said beside her as they stopped before their individual cars, the first people to arrive in the underground parking lot.

Myra smiled brightly at her.

“I would smile too if I was getting a promotion in a few months. Don’t get me wrong.” Jess added, as she unlocked her car door.

“I am not taking on the case anymore.” Myra said.

“What? Are you crazy?” Jess shouted in disbelief.

“Give Reign a kiss for me.” Myra giggled and jumped into her car.

She had only seen Jess’ baby a few times, but she absolutely adored her.

She backed her car out even though Jess was still watching her in disbelief.

She smiled and waved at her, before pulling out fast toward the farmer's market.

She grabbed a cup of Mocha on her way and drank it as she shopped for the freshest of vegetables.

She grabbed all she needed, and drove back to her elegant apartment a few miles away from her parents' mansion.

As soon as she arrived home she ran around like a headless chicken as she did her skin care routine and cooked at the same time.

She had to be at Aiden’s condo to surprise him before he closed off work at nine.

Her face was layered with a hydrating mask as she made a sweet potato casserole, grilled a nice piece of steak, and baked a pie.

Her legs shook with excitement in the bathroom, as she lasered hair off her intimate parts, and shaved her legs.

Aiden was so snappish and on edge lately, and she suspected the infrequency of their intimate moments was the cause.

Their wedding was still months away and between their tight schedule and living apart, they did not have enough time for sex.

She let her hip-length hair down, and flat ironed the thickness of it just the way Aiden liked it.

She smiled at the mirror as she put on a new set of lingerie.

This should get any man out of a foul mood, even a fierce Police Captain like Aiden.

The way she looked now would set even a monk’s blood on fire.

As she applied a seductive scent to her pulse points, she decided not to wear a dress.

She picked out a dressy silver robe, something Aiden would tug once, and she would be standing in just her lingerie before him.

She packed all the meals she made in an elegant cardboard box, stepped into a pair of red bottom heels, and rode down the elevator to her car.

As she began driving to her fiancé’s expensive apartment complex, she turned on Nina Simone’s Feeling Good. The cool, sensual music put her in an even more feminine, seductive mood.

Her blood ran cool with desire, and her heart rate dropped till it was beating slowly.

By the time she was riding the elevator up to Aiden’s condo, it was a few minutes before 9pm.

But she was too late.

She realized that even as she stood in the foyer. The soft warm music from his condo was a little audible from here.

He was home already.

She shrugged off her disappointment, and focused instead on how surprised he would be to see her at all, even though he had beat her to getting home first.

She pulled out a copy of his key card, and scanned the door open.

She walked into his condo, and could faintly hear the shower running.

Perfect!

She hurried to the kitchen, took out his elegant dishware, and laid out the food as quietly as she could.

She stood back to inspect the table and smiled in satisfaction.

It was almost like a Thanksgiving feast.

She giggled excitedly and began to pad as quietly as she could in her high heels toward the master’s bedroom.

The music was higher now, and the shower was no longer running.

She smiled as she un-belted her robe and let the belt drop to the floor in the hallway.

She froze suddenly after her next step.

Something was not quite right.

She frowned as she raised her nose up to sniff the air. What was this unnatural heat, and..

She sniffed again. Were those scented candles? But Aiden was not expecting her.

Then the volume of the music reduced, and she began to hear the lusty moans coming from behind her fiancé’s bedroom door.

She gasped, stepping back.

She had to be dreaming. Aiden brought another woman home?

He could not be watching porn, these were real life sounds.

They were clear even from where she stood, the grunts, low-toned moans, the rhythmic sound of flesh slapping against flesh, the occasional exclamations of pleasure.

Her ankles shook and she almost fell.

She blindly reached her hand out for the wall to support herself.

Aiden was cheating on her? Their wedding was just six months away.

She shook her head as her chest began to ache, and it became difficult to breathe.

“Oh God.” She gasped silently as she crashed to her knees outside his door, and struggled to inhale through her mouth and nose.

Her chest was physically on fire, and her vision was hazy.

This can not be true.

Maybe one of his friends simply brought a girl to bang in his apartment. That would make more sense.

The Aiden she knew did not have patience for any other woman except her, and she had never found anything suspicious between him and any other woman.

She saw him every day at work, and spent most evenings here at his condo. The only reason they were not living together yet was because their jobs did not tolerate cohabiting.

She was tempted to just leave. She could pretend she was never here and try to forget this.

It was already too painful, and she doubted she would survive it if she actually saw her fiancé on top of another woman.

“Yes.” She heard Aiden’s deep voice ring out as the speed of the smacking cheeks seemed to increase.

Myra felt her lunch come back up her throat.

She gritted her teeth, pushed herself off the floor, and kicked the door open, ready to tear him and his wh*re apart.

But she froze.

Aiden actually had his own bare butt cheeks up, and the naked pair of butts behind him was too muscular to be a woman’s.

She squinted in disbelief as she saw the man reach out, yank Aiden’s hair back, and lovingly bit his neck.

Her fiancé moaned deeply, and just as the man turned his face, Myra saw he was her father.

There are cases of extreme anger that are classified as temporary madness.

In cases of murder under such circumstances, good lawyers can argue that the person could not be blamed for their actions in those few minutes of temporal madness.

They had genuinely been crazy at the time.

That was the exact emotion Myra felt as she saw her own father thrusting in and out of her fiancé.

For over two minutes after that, her mind worked separately from her body.

Her limbs moved and did things her brain did not register, and the room took on a red tint.

Before that night, she always thought the I SAW RED phrase was some creative nonsense.

But tonight, as the city continued to bustle just below, Aiden’s bedroom took on a red color, like some insane TikTok filter.

She staggered into the room, ignoring the pain that burst from her ankles every time her legs twisted to the side in her high heels, from shaking so much.

She picked up the bedside lamp, yanking it with the cord, and hurled it at her father’s head.

He narrowly dodged it, and only then did the pair notice there was a third person in the room.

They had really been going to town, deaf to the world in their lust.

“You bastards!” She shrieked in an ear-deafening scream, her body bending forward, unable to remain straight as it took all the last strength in her shivering body to scream.

She took her shoes off and hurled them at Aiden, heels first.

One caught him in the ear as he struggled to pull his pants on, and he began to bleed.

She could not even bear to look at her father.

She should not have to see him like this. She should not have to see her own biological father’s nakedness.

“You pigs!” She screamed through her tears, throwing everything her hands could grab. She ran to Aiden’s display shelf and cleared all the medals and awards to the floor.

She sent one decorative glass sculpture, flying after a ceramic one, and then a granite one.

She aimed side stools at their large chests.

She attacked them with every damn thing her hands could find as they ran around, desperate to get a break so they could put on their clothes.

She stumped on their clothes scattered all over the floor.

Why did she not think to bring her gun? Why did she not bring her f*cking gun?

“Stop it, Myra.” Aiden said in a pleading voice, avoiding all the missiles she hurled at him.

The mirrors in his room all lay shattered now, and she began to see dents in his floor to ceiling windows.

“Get a grip.” Her father finally barked. “I did not give you leave to speak to me like that.”

Myra froze and turned bloodshot, unbelieving eyes towards him.

“What did you just f*cking say?”

“Language, Myra. I am your father.” He said strongly, finally standing straight in a tank top and suit pants.

She laughed in disbelief, and her laughter came out sounding like a Maniac’s.

“You are nobody’s father.” She said in a quiet whisper. “How can you even look at me after what you have done?” She finally yelled. “You have no shame.”

Her blood began to steam as she watched him stand in his usual arrogant, domineering way once again.

“Keep talking and you’ll be suspended.”

Myra gasped, one of Aiden’s medals falling from her hand.

She stepped back in shock.

“You’re not sorry?” The question popped out of her mouth in disbelief.

“Myra.” Aiden said gently, and she turned to look at him, and then the man who had brought her to this world.

She bent down suddenly and picked up the medal with a sharp edge.

She ran for her father and raised the medal high to strike him before any of the men could even react.

But she was not tall enough. She barely managed to slash through his half naked chest.

Blood sprayed everywhere as her father fell to his knees.

She raised her hand to strike again when she felt something heavy crash against her head from behind, and her body fell without a struggle to the ground.

She saw Aiden’s face floating above hers, before her eyes finally closed in darkness as a tear ran down the side of her eye.

When Myra woke up, it was morning, and she was lying on a couch in her living room.

She tried to get up, but pain exploded in her head.

She yelped, and fell back on the couch.

She lay that way for a while, and slowly attempted to open her eyes again.

She waited for a few more minutes to pass before she carefully sat up.

Her vision went black for two seconds, but the pain was not as bad anymore.

She looked at the coffee table and saw an almost empty bottle of red wine, and a cup of painkillers knocked over with pills spilling out of it.

She frowned, trying to remember how she got home last night.

She remembered herself at the farmer’s market, she remembered cooking excitedly. Did she not go to Aiden’s anymore?

She looked down to see she was in one of her comfortable Pajamas.

She suddenly remembered Aiden’s face floating above hers, but trying to think of anything before or after that caused terrible pain to her head.

She gripped her head and groaned in pain.

What happened to her?

She stood up and walked to the bathroom, realizing how late she was already for work.

She let warm water run down her body in the shower for as long as she could before she hurried into her room to get dressed.

As she pulled on a pair of leather pants, a turtle-neck shirt, and tied her hair up in a low bun, she tried to think of last night again.

But her head protested and she winced in pain.

When she hurried to her kitchen to grab a bowl of cereal, she stopped short.

The meal she made last night lay on the kitchen island, unpacked.

Did she really not go to Aiden’s then? Then where did the image of his face floating above hers last night come from?

She shook her head, and rushed out of her apartment without eating.

Myra drove fast, just under the speed limit, and managed to get to the office in record time, but she was still very late.

As she hurried out of the elevator, she ran into Greg who was going out with another of her male colleagues.

“Whoah.” he exclaimed.

“I know.” She grimaced nervously. She was never late.

“The chief is in a foul mood. You are so cooked.” Greg said with a sympathetic face.

She nodded and hurried towards their office.

As she walked towards her desk, all her colleagues looked at her in surprise, and she smiled apologetically at them.

“Rough night?” Jess asked, as Myra pulled out her seat.

“I guess.”

“Myra.” She heard Aiden’s booming voice from his office and her back stiffened. She was really in trouble.

She dropped her bag on the chair, pushed it back in and hurried to his office.

She could not meet his eyes as he walked away from his desk towards her. She stood stiffly at attention.

“Are you slacking off on purpose because your bosses are family?” He asked in a low tone.

“No, sir.” She kept her eyes on the wall behind him.

“Why are you almost one hour late for work?”

She squinted as even trying to remember anything began to make her head hurt again.

Aiden leaned down, and his face came into her line of sight. His eyes were dark and suspicious. “Where were you last night?”

“I don’t know,” She said honestly.

He barked out a bitter laugh and stepped back. “You don’t know. Are you cheating on me, Myra?”

Her eyes widened as her body slackened into ease. “God, no.”

“Then what kind of ridiculous answer was that?” He barked.

She stiffened and looked away again. A knock came on the door and one of the officers poked his head in.

“The chief wants you, captain.”

Aiden looked from the officer to her. Then he picked up a stack of files and roughly pushed it onto her chest.

“Get to work and stop slacking around.” He barked. “I need that within the hour.”

She looked at him as tears stung her eyes. Was this really her fiancé? Why was he always so cold to her at work?

She did not expect him to show favoritism, of course, but he never treated the rest of her colleagues like this.

“Yes sir.” She said, and briskly walked out of his office back to her desk.

She pulled a cup of painkillers out of her desk drawer and dry swallowed.

Barely thirty minutes had passed when Aiden showed up to her desk with more files. “Are you done? Do this too.”

She bent her head in humiliation.

“How can he treat you like this for being late just once?” Jess whispered as he walked away. “Especially when you spent the night with him.”

Myra turned wide eyes to her. “How did you know?”

Jess flinched, surprised at her intensity.

“You seemed so excited in the parking lot yesterday. And I passed you some hours later in traffic driving towards his place when I went to pick Reign up from daycare.”

Myra’s jaw fell.

“I called out to you, but I guess you did not see me. Your hair was so beautiful. You should let it down from time to time.”

A searing pain sliced through Myra’s head. And then she remembered.

“You bastard!” Myra screamed as she banged the door shut behind her.

She could see all the officers outside watching, and even though they could not see past the one-way glass, they were sure listening.

But she did not care.

“What?” Aiden rose from behind his desk.

“You and my father must really think I am the world’s biggest fool.” She screamed as he crossed the floor towards her.

His stride broke, but only just.

He stopped in front of her and yelled, “What are you on about? Have you finished the work I assigned you?”

She slapped him, hard.

She did not care if she got suspended, or even fired for disrespecting her boss. Maybe she would tell the higher ups about their inappropriate conduct.

“How dare you?”

She slapped him again. “You are really some d*ckhead. You thought I would not remember?”

“I have no idea what you are on about.” He said, looking at her with blazing eyes. “But if you don’t get out of my office now, I will forget you are my fiancé and send you to internal affairs.”

“I should be sending you and the chief there.” She yelled at him. “You cheating bastard.” She yanked the engagement ring off her finger and threw it at him.

“And I am not your bloody fiancé.”

He was gritting his teeth now, his face purple with rage.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her out of his office.

“Walk.” He said through gritted teeth as they passed all the officers who were staring.

They rode down the elevator to the underground garage.

“You don’t want them to hear you are f*cking the chief?” She said in bitterness, fighting her tears. “How long?”

“What?”

“How long have you been f*cking my father?” She yelled.

She did not care about his why. She did not have problems with him being gay or bisexual if only he had told her the truth and did not cheat on her.

And of all people, with her own father.

“What are you saying?" He frowned in confusion at her. “If you need rest and psychiatric evaluation, I can speed up the approval for sick leave.” Aiden said in a sudden sympathetic voice.

She stepped back.

“Sick leave? I saw you. Don’t make me out to be crazy.” She screamed as tears finally streamed down her face.

Had she been with a monster all this time?

It was bad enough that they did that to her. Now they were trying to gaslight her into thinking it never happened.

Aiden shook his head, looking at her.

“I am not surprised this is happening. You have been under a lot of stress lately with wedding planning.”

“I am not crazy.” She cried, backing away from him.

“But you are saying crazy things. Do you know how mad the chief would be if he heard this nonsense you are saying?” He said in a placating tone. Like he was on her side, cared for her.

She shook her head. She knew what she saw. Maybe she did not remember at first, but she did now.

“You should rest.”

“No.” She screamed loudly.

She was a detective. If anyone could find proof, it was her.

She had witnessed the most horrible crimes in her few years as a detective.

She knew all the early signs. If she did not find answers quickly and nip this in the bud, this may turn into a horrible criminal case.

Psychiatry? Was that their plan? To commit her into an institution and say she was crazy to save their reputation after she caught them?

That made sense.

That is why they knocked her out and took her home and set up everything to look like she had never been to that condo.

The cold bastards. They had it all thought out. They even changed her clothes.

She began to back away quickly.

“Myra.” Aiden said, hurrying towards her. She spun around and ran.

They were all badass detectives. If anyone could manipulate evidence, it would be a badass detective.

She opened her door quickly, and shut it just as he placed his hand on her car. He tried to get in front of her car, but when he saw she could well run him over, he jumped to the side.

She pulled out and drove straight to his condo. She soon saw him speeding behind her.

She yelled, and hit the steering repeatedly.

The bastard.

She had destroyed that place last night. That is all the evidence she needed to prove she was there and was not crazy.

She jumped out of the car and ran into the elevator. But just before the door slid shut, Aiden shoved his hand between the door, and got in with her.

“What are you doing?”

“What are YOU doing? He fired back.

She ignored him and ran out of the elevator as soon as the door slid open.

He reached out to grab her, but she slid past him and scanned her copy of his keycard against the door.

“You cannot come into my house without my permission.” He said loudly, gripping both her arms and shaking her.

“Not when you willingly gave me the key.” She kneed him in the inner thigh, and he stumbled back, howling in pain.

She pushed the door open and ran straight for his bedroom, already fishing her phone out of her pocket to take pictures.

But when she stepped into the bedroom, it was spotless.

Myra gasped, stumbling as she missed a step.

This could not be real. The mirrors she was sure she had shattered were all hanging untouched against the walls. The windows had no dents, and all the medals were perfectly arranged.

“Found what you were searching for?” She heard Aiden behind her.

She spun around. “You fixed it. You fixed everything overnight.”

He shook his head at her and began to pull out his phone. “The chief would want to know this. It is better to take you to the hospital now that it is still early.”

She gripped his hand. “Don’t you dare.”

“I may not have the full right to do it yet, but your parents do. You need an evaluation. You cannot do your job like this.”

Fear suddenly gripped her heart.

She did not want to end up in a straight jacket at some psychiatric home. She had seen it happen many times.

Some people managed to prove they have never been crazy and got freedom years later, but some never did.

“Please.” The word slipped out of her mouth as her heart squeezed.

Aiden stopped.

He shook his head and kissed her forehead. “I am sorry. This is all my fault. I have been too hard on you lately.’

She felt tears streaming down her eyes at her sudden helplessness, even as he hugged her close.

“It will all soon be over. We can move the wedding forward and do a smaller one if it’s too stressful,” he said, caressing her body and kissing her forehead again and again.

She cried harder, wanting to take a knife to the monster’s chest and carve his heart out.

“I’ll call in sick for you.” He finally let her go. “Go relax on the bed, I’ll grab some groceries to cook for you.”

He smiled down at her. His gentle, handsome face would deceive a stranger.

The way it had deceived her all these years.

How could somebody love a monster for years and not know it?

As he walked away, her eyes fell on something bright in a shadowed part of the hallway, just outside the bedroom door.

She waited to hear the front door lock before she hurried over and picked up.

Her eyes widened as she saw the silver belt from her robe last night.