He Kicked Down the Door to Destroy the Maid — Until Her 3-Year-Old Son Stood in Front of His Sick Daughter With a Hidden Pink Backpack

The word "defective" hung in the air like a death sentence.

Gabriel didn't yell. He didn't explode with theatrical rage. Instead, a terrifying, unnatural calm washed over his features. The monster that had ruled the underworld for a decade, the beast he had tried so hard to bury for his daughter’s sake, woke up in his eyes.

"Say that again," Gabriel whispered.

Julian saw the look in his brother's eyes and knew there was no mercy left on earth for him.

Driven by pure, unadulterated panic, Julian’s hand dove inside his beige cashmere coat. He whipped out a compact snub-nosed revolver, aiming it wildly—not at Gabriel, but straight at Claire and the two children.

"Nobody move!" Julian shrieked, his finger trembling violently on the trigger. "Marcus, throw your keys on the floor! Give me the SUV or I blow this maid's head off right now!"

Abigail screamed. Claire immediately spun around, covering both Abigail and Lucy with her entire body, bracing to take a bullet for both children.

Little Lucy didn't run. Under his mother's arm, his tiny hands pushed hard against Claire’s chest, trying with his miniature strength to push her behind him. "Run, Mommy! Run!"

Before Julian could blink, Gabriel moved.

The speed was inhuman. Gabriel closed the eight-foot gap in a fraction of a second. His left hand clamped over the cylinder of the revolver, jamming the mechanism so it couldn't rotate, while his right forearm struck Julian across the throat like a steel beam.

Julian choked, his eyes rolling back as the breath was crushed from his lungs. The gun clattered harmlessly onto the marble.

Gabriel grabbed Julian by the collar of his cashmere coat, lifted him completely off his feet with one arm, and slammed him down against the floor with bone-shattering force.

Gabriel’s knee pinned Julian’s sternum, his heavy hand wrapping around his brother’s throat, slowly squeezing the oxygen out of his thrashing body.

"Gabriel! No!" Claire cried out, her voice cutting through the violence. "Don't do it! Not in front of the children! Don't let Abby see you become a monster for him!"