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.

“Mom. Did you not hear what I said?” Myra asked, looking at her mother who went on sketching out a shoe design, as if she had not just told her she had found her husband in bed with her own fiancé.

“You don’t believe me?” Myra continued, and feverishly dug into her pocket for the belt.

Her mother was her last hope. If anyone could protect her and punish her father for what he did, it was her mother.

“Look.” She raised the belt.

“So you are sleeping with a man you are not yet married to.” Her mother said quietly, and took off her glasses to finally look at her.

“What?” Myra’s jaw fell.

“I taught you about the dangers of premarital sex.” her mother said, gently putting her computer tablet aside. “You would not be this hurt if you had not given your body to Aiden.”

“I am an adult.” Myra lost it, and stood up. “How is my choice to have consensual sex worse than those men betraying me like this?”

Her mother was always the traditional wife.

The real patriarchy princess.

In her eyes, men were always blameless, and she never stood up to her husband, even though she was the one with all the money, and her father was a former governor.

But this? This was just too much.

“We should hope Aiden does not tell your father about this. He would be so disappointed in you.”

“Mom.” Myra shrieked in disbelief. “Is this all you can say? He betrayed me.”

“I don’t know what you want me to do, Myra.” Her mother said with sad eyes. “I don’t know what you think I can possibly do to your father.” she added helplessly, as if she was not a f*cking multi-millionaire.

Myra staggered back. How could these people be her parents? One evil, the other spineless.

“You will not help me?” She asked, as tears began to stream down her eyes again. “I am your only child.”

Her mother sighed in exhaustion.

“I love you Myra. But your father is so close to the goal he has worked towards all his life. Now is the time he needs our support the most, not us tearing him down.”

Myra fell to the couch, a sudden stab of pain in her chest.

Why had she come here?

Why did she even bother?

Tyson Shaw was Savannah Shaw’s god. She would do anything to please him.

The only reason she had not given her whole wealth to her husband was because her own father, the former governor, had made the company and assets only transferable to his grandchildren, not his son-in-law.

But her mother spent her whole life trying to overcompensate for that.

She licked the very floor the man walked on, and never protected even her own daughter from him.

People called it love, but Myra did not know what to call it.

She looked at her mother, suddenly realizing that if she had married Aiden, this would likely be her life.

Before last night, she too had been close to licking the floor Aiden walked on.

Not anymore.

She stood up. “It’s nice to see you and your husband both put political ambitions over my well-being.”

Her mother stood up hurriedly, and began to walk towards her.

“Myra. Don’t be like this. If this scandal gets out, your father’s political career will be dead on arrival.”

Myra smiled bitterly.

“You people hurt me in the worst way possible. I will hit you all where it hurts the most too.”

She marched out of her parents' luxurious mansion to her small car.

As she drove back to the office, her plan came together in her head.

She would strike both Aiden and her father with one blow, and gain as much power as she could in the process, so she would never have to be at anyone’s mercy like this ever again.

Aiden was calling her phone non-stop, but she ignored his calls as she walked over to the police chief’s office.

“Myra.” Her father said cheerfully as she walked in.

He never called her that at work. It was always Ms Shaw.

“Good day chief.” She stood at attention, looking at the demon who was her father. He was acting like nothing happened last night.

“You look well. I thought you were taking sick leave for the rest of the day.” He looked her over with a smile.

“Miscommunication sir.”

He nodded. “That’s my girl. You are never lazy.”

She pressed her lips together, and said nothing.

“Why are you here, Ms Shaw?” He said, his attention back at the desktop on his table.

“To apologize.” She said,

He glanced up, and squinted in confusion at her.

“I was foolish to turn my back on my duty yesterday. I would like to continue with the plan.” She paused. “If the spot is still available.”

He turned back fully to her again. “It is still available,” he said slowly. “But what if you change your mind again?”

“I won’t, chief.” She kept her eyes up.

“I don’t believe you. One word from Captain Acosta and you could be messing up my plans again.”

She pressed her lips to stifle her scream.

Hearing Aiden’s name from his lips now sent hives all over her skin as the memory of her father lovingly biting his neck came back to her mind.

“I won’t, chief.” She repeated, and her voice came out sounding teary.

“Are you okay, Ms Shaw?” He sounded concerned now.

She nodded, unable to risk speaking because she would break down here in his office.

If she had not seen that belt a few hours ago, at this point she would have begun to believe she had dreamed up the whole thing, or she had simply gone crazy.

He and Aiden were such great actors.

"OK," He pulled a document out from under a pile on his table. “I need your signature, my dear. You can’t back out till Professor Callaghan Dankworth is in jail. If not, you risk imprisonment.”

She hesitated for only a moment.

She pulled a pen from her breast pocket and signed.

Her father took the document with a smile and nodded. “You are a grown woman now. I am so proud of you.”

She saluted and began to walk out of his office when he said.

“Ms Shaw.”

She stopped, but could not bear to turn back and look at him.

“You must succeed at all costs. F*ck the professor if that is the only way to get concrete evidence,” he said.

Her back stiffened.

Did she hear well? Did her father just say that? They never discussed such topics.

She turned back, but all his attention was back to the screen of his desktop.

Her shoulders sagged as she reached for the door.

Something was off.

Something bigger was at play here that she did not yet know about.

When she pulled the door open, Aiden was standing outside.

He was looking at her with disbelief. “What did you just do?”

She sidestepped him and began to walk away, towards the auditorium where the brief would be starting in a few minutes.

Aiden grabbed her as soon as they were inside and pinned her against the wall. “You would f*ck my father?”

She smiled darkly at him. “Sounds familiar? Quite sad that he insists he is not your father though.”

“You wh*re!” he groaned. “I always knew you had hot pants for all the men in the department.”

“Aiden Acosta.” She smiled, and leaned up to kiss his beard stubble. “You are about to find out what whoring truly means.”

“Ms Shaw.” She heard the Professor's voice call, bringing her back to the present.

She blinked and began to move along with the other college students to the theater hall for their physical trials.

“Hey bitch.” Myra heard as soon as she stepped into the hallway.

She froze as everyone began to laugh.

“Lying bitch.” Another female voice said. “What makes you think the Professor would even look at you?”

Myra’s back stiffened.

How did they find out so quickly? The whole mission was supposed to be classified.