"Why are you doing this?" Daisy gasped, her voice trembling.
Instead of answering, Olivia lunged forward. She grabbed a fistful of Daisy's hair and slammed her sideways into the brick wall of the alley. Daisy instinctively threw her hand up to cushion the blow; her knuckles cracked painfully against the stone, sparing her skull but leaving her hand bruised and bleeding.
Daisy slumped against the wall, clutching her injured hand as she looked up at Olivia. "What did I ever do to you?"
"Remember Connor?" Olivia sneered.
Daisy searched her memory, her brow furrowed in confusion.
"The guy you rejected a few years ago," Olivia spat, her eyes flashing with a long-simmering rage. "I liked him. He wouldn't even look at me because he was obsessed with you. I'm rich, I'm beautiful, and I'm better than you in every way imaginable—yet he chose a nobody."
"That wasn't my fault," Daisy said, her voice gaining a flicker of strength. "I barely knew him. He asked me out of nowhere. If you liked him so much, you should have tried winning him over instead of blaming me."
"Oh, I did," Olivia hissed. "And when that didn't work, I decided to move on. But then you just had to keep meddling in Lina's business."
"Lina is my friend," Daisy countered. "You and your clique were tormenting her just because of the color of her skin. I wasn't going to stand by and watch that."
Olivia's face contorted. She grabbed Daisy by the hair again, delivering several sharp slaps that left Daisy's vision swimming. "That was our business, not yours. And it wasn't about what you think it was."
Olivia stepped back, she wore her mask and checking her manicure before gesturing coldly to the other girls lurking in the shadows. "Finish it."
A short distance away, Daisy's mother, Selena, was humming to herself as she was on hero wat to her house. I've got an early leave from work, today, she thought. Ethan and Daisy are at school, father will be busy at his work... I can finally get the house deep-cleaned in peace.
Her peaceful thoughts were shattered by a muffled cry and the sound of thudding blows coming from a nearby alley. Selena's blood ran cold. She rushed toward the sound, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She rounded the corner and saw a group of masked girls huddled over a fallen figure, their kicks landing with sickening thuds. Selena was about to shout for them to stop when she caught a glimpse of the victim's face.
It was Daisy.
"STOP!" Selena screamed, a primal, maternal fury erupting within her.
One of the girls turned, startled.
"Let my daughter go!" Selena roared. Without thinking, she swung her heavy leather purse with all her might. The bag flew through the air and struck one of the masked girls squarely in the face. The girl crumpled to the ground, her eyes instantly blooming into a dark, swollen red.
The other girls froze, panicked. Seeing their friend down, they scrambled to pick her up.
Selena wasn't finished. She kicked off her shoes and snatched them up. As the girls began to flee, she hurled the first shoe like a professional pitcher. It caught a girl right in the back of the head. She threw the second one immediately after, hitting another.
Despite the hits, the girls were numerous; they steadied their dazed friends, linked arms, and sprinted away into the maze of the city streets.
Selena didn't give them a second thought. She sprinted to Daisy's side and pulled her into her arms. Daisy was covered in bruises, her lip split, and her eyes glazed with pain.
"Mother..." Daisy whispered, her head lolling back as she lost consciousness.
"I've got you, baby. I've got you," Selena sobbed. She looked down at her broken daughter, her voice turning into a low, dangerous growl. "Who did this to you? I will find them. I will never let this go."
Picking Daisy up in a surge of adrenaline, Selena ran barefoot toward the main road, fumbling for her phone to call her oldest friend.
Minutes later, Selena burst into a private clinic. Her friend, Doctor Sera, met her at the door with a stretcher. They rushed Daisy into an exam room, where Sera began a series of rapid checks.
Selena stood in the corner, her hands shaking and covered in her daughter's blood. "Sera, please... please save her. Take my life instead, let me suffer for her, just make her okay."
"Calm down, Selena. Take a breath," Sera said firmly but kindly, never taking her eyes off the vitals monitor. "Your daughter is stable. She's battered, but she's going to be okay."
Selena sank into a chair, the tension leaving her body in a wave of hysterical relief. She wept quietly, whispering to herself, I thought I lost you. Thank God, I thought I lost you.
"She'll need to sleep through the night," Sera noted, adjusting the IV drip. "She'll be herself by morning."
Selena nodded fervently.
"I'll stay with her tonight," Sera promised, noticing the exhaustion etched into Selena's face. "I will protect her with my life, Selena. But you need to go home. Your family needs to know what happened, and you need to clean those cuts on your feet."
With one last lingering look at Daisy's pale face, Selena nodded and headed into the night.