~ Evelyn’s POV ~
I was in my study, a glass of vintage scotch sitting untouched on the desk.
The files containing the information of my acquisition of over fifty percent of the Sterling’s Corp share was spread out in front of me; a beautiful, methodical destruction of the Sterling’s.
I should have felt a sense of completion, a satisfaction.
Instead, i was checking my watch every three minutes, staring at the doorway, listening for the sound of the front door, the light click of her heels, or the soft hum of Clara’s voice as she thanked the driver.
What is taking her so long?
I picked up my phone, my thumb hovering over her name.
I wanted to call, to ask where she was, who she was with, and why she wasn’t home yet, but I stopped myself.
I didn’t want to be the overbearing shadow in her life.
‘She’s celebrating with her team’ I reminded myself, ‘She deserves to be a normal twenty five year old for one night’
But the “weird feeling”, the one that had made me a billionaire by predicting disasters before they happened was gnawing at me.
A sharp ping from my laptop broke the silence, It was Gina, my head of internal security and IT.
She didn’t send emails this late unless the world was ending.
I clicked the file and my heart instantly dropped into my stomach.
It was a text log.
My eyes scanned the dates.
The texts were from three days ago, two days ago and this morning.
The texts were filled with one sided messages from Julian threatening her about something he digged up about me.
The irregularities he mention from my first big acquisition jumped at me.
I remember how messy the deal was but I had buried it years ago.
But he doesn’t know is that it will take more than that to even invite me over to the police let alone a prison.
And Clara, bless her heart, fell for it.
Then, there was the audio file.
I clicked play.
The sound of Julian’s voice, thin, sleazy, and dripping with a desperate kind of malice filled the room.
I heard him detail the “dirt” he had on me.
And then, I heard Clara.
Her voice was small, but it was steady as she agreed to meet up with him at Celeste hotel today I exchange for the document he threatened to leak to the press.
“How can she be so naive to think he would willingly give it to her” dread washed over me at the thought of what he could do to her.
Just as I tried to dial Francis number, my second private phone vibrated on the desk.
It was a message from Elena, the woman I’d planted in Julian’s life.
I clicked it, and for a heartbeat, I think my heart actually stopped beating.
The photo sent was slightly grainy, taken from behind a decorative pillar in the Celeste lounge.
It showed a corner booth, dimly lit.
Julian was there, his face twisted into a grin and in his arms, her head lolling against his shoulder with her eyes closed in a way that looked nothing like sleep, was Clara.
The panic i felt at that moment was unlike anything I had felt before.
I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t think.
‘He’s taking her to a room,’ a second message from Elena flashed.
” room 412″
I was already out of the room and running to the garage, before the message had even finished scrolling.
I grabbed the keys to the Bentley and drove out.
“Francis,” i called out as soon as the call connected while I tore down the driveway, the engine of the Bentley roaring like a beast in the night.
“I want every of men you have at Celeste, Now!.”
“Miss Evelyn, what’s happened?”
“Julian has Clara,” I whispered, my voice cracking as I imagined the worst
“And if he’s touched her, if he’s even breathed on her, I swear to god I’m going to kill him, Francis” I cussed
“Understood” he said curtly.
“Also Get the Celeste management on the line. Tell them to cancel Julian Sterlings lodging before I get there and if they fail or refuse to do so, tell them I said I will buy the hotel just to make their life a living hell.”
“I’m already on the phone with them”
“Good” and with that i hung up
Stepping on the gas i pushed the car to a hundred, the city lights blurring into long, streaks of white and red.
Julian Sterling thought he had something to use against me.
That he could take the one thing I had allowed myself to want and use it as leverage.
How foolish must he be
I reached the Celeste in record time, the car skidding to a halt in the fountain circle, the tires letting out a dying scream against the pavement.
I left the door hanging open, the engine still hot and ticking, and walked toward the gold-rimmed revolving doors of the hotel.
Francis’s men had arrived minutes before me, and they had turned the five-star serenity into a tactical perimeter.
Men in sharp, dark suits were stationed at every exit, their presence making the hotel’s own security look like decorative statues.
The high-society guests were whispering, huddled near the pillars and lounges looking on, and probably wondering what was going on.
I saw the manager, a man in a morning coat who looked like he was about to faint, scurrying toward me.
“Miss Vance! Miss Vance, please, we had no idea….the privacy of our guests is—”
“If you say the word ‘privacy’ again,” I said, my voice so low it was almost a growl, “I will ensure this building is condemned by dawn. Where is he?”
“Room 412,” the man stammered, his face a sickly shade of gray.
He was practically running to keep up with my stride.
“Our security is trying to—the door is deadbolted from the inside, we’ve called—”
“I don’t care who you called.”
We reached the elevators.
My head of security, a man named Jack, was already there, holding the doors open.
I stepped into the mirrored box, the manager and Jack following behind.
The manager was babbling behind me, something about “policy” and “unfortunate misunderstandings,” but his voice was just background noise, like the hum of a fly.
I stood perfectly still, my eyes fixed on the digital floor numbers as they flicked upward.
4…
6…
I could see my reflection in the polished brass of the elevator doors.
Like always i looked like the woman the world feared, but inside, I was falling apart.
My hands were balled into fists at my sides, hidden by the sleeves of my coat, because I knew if I let them loose, they would be shaking.
Every second that passed felt like an eternity.
Room 412.
The pictures Elena sent of Clara kept replying in my mind over and over again like a loop.
Minutes later the elevator chimed, notifying our arrival to the designated floor.
The hallway was long and at the far end, two more of my men were already standing outside a door.
“Open it,” I commanded, my voice echoing off the walls.
“Miss Vance, the police are three minutes away—” the manager tried one last time, reaching for my arm.
I turned on him then, a look in my eyes that made him recoil as if I’d struck him.
“Open the door, Now!!.”
Jack didn’t wait for the manager’s master key card.
He stepped forward, his shoulder hitting the heavy wood with the force of a battering ram, again and again until we heard the frame of the door splinter.
And as the door swung wide, I prepared myself for the sight that would either save me or break me forever.
Jack and two of his men stormed in and I followed behind.
They kicked down the doors to the rooms and finally found them in just in time.
Julian’s half naked body was looming over Clara’s unconscious body.
Her clothes torn, her pale skin stark against the dark fabric of the duvet.
The sight of her, so vulnerable and still, broke my heart to bits.
But before I could move, before I could unleash the fury that had been building in me, Miller and his men descended on him.
Julian fought like a cornered animal, but he was no match for the trained men.
His bloodied body was later dragged out of the room, and his curses and pleas fading into the hallway, leaving behind only the sickening scent of his cheap cologne.
Then, silence.
A silence heavier than any I had ever known fell on the room as I watched her.
Her breathing was shallow, and there were bite marks on her throat, her delicate blouse was ripped at the shoulder, a testament to Julian’s depravity.
The rage I felt for him, for what he had done, was a burning ember, but it was dwarfed by a wave of guilt and pain I felt at the moment.
I had promised her security and was so certain of my control, so confident in my ability to protect her, yet I failed.
The thought of her sacrificing herself, of her being willing to endure Julian’s cruelty to shield me, left me completely crushed.
And now my carefully constructed walls crumbled, and for the first time in what felt like a lifetime, I allowed myself to feel the raw, agonizing pain of knowing that had I been a little bit late, the person I cared for most in the world would have been scarred for life.
I moved toward the bed, my movements slow and heavy.
I looked at her unconscious face, the faint tremor in her lips, and a single, broken whisper escaped me.
“Clara…”
phew that was close