Chapter Text
Marta looked frail standing atop the mansion’s balcony, no better than a meek little mouse overlooking a castle she didn’t understand. Ransom couldn’t help but smile, in disbelief and awe. He knew better now. That meek little mouse was cunning in a way he didn’t understand. Anyone who could outplay him had to be.
He hated her.
The greed-fueled rage he felt in the house when he’d tried to stab her still coursed through his veins as the cops shoved him into the back of their cruiser. He stewed in it for several minutes, until his mouth felt sour with bitterness. His chest twisted, a strange vine of envy growing through his anger. No. Was that envy? It felt different, lustful. Yearning.
He realized abruptly he loved her, too.
He said you beat him at Go more than I do. I always thought I was the only one who could beat him at Go.
She’d beaten him, too.
He could almost forgive his grandfather for giving her everything. Still, he needed to take back everything from her, no matter the stakes.
In for a penny; in for a pound.
~*~
Despite how all the Thrombeys were looking up at her, all of their faces a mixture of confusion, awe, and hatred, it was Ransom’s cold leer Marta couldn’t shake. It chilled her to the bone beneath the blanket she had draped over her shoulders, and was something the coffee she drank seemed unable to warm.
Her body still had a tremor coursing through it from when he had her pinned to the ground, weight crushing into her. Despite never feeling the pierce, she’d thought for a second she really was dead.
Now, she felt alive with the strangest sense of horror. Somehow, despite Benoit still being close and the local cops driving Ransom away, she knew this wouldn’t be the last time she saw him.
In for an inch; in for a mile.