As the guards rushed to attend to Alexander, who had passed out from the altercation, Nikki felt a pang of regret wash over her. She hesitated, torn between her instinct to follow and her fear of what she might find.
"I should go check on him," she said, her voice tinged with uncertainty.
But the guards, their expressions a mixture of fear and apprehension, blocked her path. "We can't let you near him," one of them said, his voice quivering with unease. "We're afraid you might... finish the job."
Nikki recoiled at the implication, her hands trembling with a mixture of anger and guilt. "I wouldn't..." she began, but her words faltered as she struggled to find the right response.
Before she could protest further, the family doctor arrived, his expression grave as he took in the scene before him. His eyes narrowed as he spotted the mark on Alexander's neck, a silent testament to the violence that had unfolded.
"Who did this?" he demanded, his voice cutting through the tension like a knife.
The guards exchanged hesitant glances before reluctantly admitting the truth. "It was... Alex's girlfriend," one of them confessed, his voice barely above a whisper.
The doctor's eyebrows shot up in surprise, mingled with a hint of admiration. "His girlfriend?" he repeated, his tone tinged with disbelief. "Impressive. To think a girl could easily overpower someone like Alex..."
As the gravity of the situation sank in, Nikki felt a surge of mixed emotions. Guilt gnawed at her conscience, knowing that she had caused harm to the man she once cared for. But there was also a sense of vindication, a quiet satisfaction in knowing that she had struck a blow against the tyranny of his power.
With a heavy heart, she watched as Alexander was carried away to his room, knowing that their paths were now irreversibly intertwined in a tangled web of violence and deceit. And as she stood there, a silent witness to the chaos unfolding around her, Nikki couldn't help but wonder what the future held in store for them both.