Chapter 13 - Pierce Tried To Run When He Saw He Was Finished
It happened fast.
Too fast for anyone to stop in the first second.
While Dana was on the phone with outside counsel and the security supervisor was relaying instructions about camera retention, Pierce suddenly lunged toward the SUV’s open rear door.
He didn’t make it.
Mr. Keane grabbed his blazer at the shoulder, and Pierce twisted violently, almost ripping free. Rose buckets rolled. A loose wrap of sunflowers slid underfoot. The hotel security supervisor came in from the other side and pinned Pierce against the side of the vehicle.
Camille did not flinch.
“Still running?” she asked.
Pierce looked at her with pure fury now, the polished charm completely gone.
“You don’t know what they’ll do with this,” he said. “You think corporate lawyers care about you? You think she does?”
He jerked his chin toward Rosa.
“I cared enough to wait eleven months for you,” Rosa said.
He laughed once, harshly.
“You should’ve let your daughter stay out of it.”
The words were a mistake.
Rosa’s face went still.
“So you admit she got too close.”
He realized it instantly, but the damage was done.
Dana stepped forward. “That statement was heard by multiple witnesses.”
Pierce glared at Rosa with naked hatred.
Camille stepped closer, voice low and shaking only slightly.
“Was any part of it real?” she asked. “Any part of what you said to me?”
Pierce looked at her for a second too long.
Then he answered the question by not answering it.
He looked away.
Camille exhaled through her nose and nodded once, like a woman locking a door in her own mind.
“Good,” she said. “That’s the last thing I needed.”
Rosa frowned slightly. “Needed for what?”
Camille turned toward Dana.
“For the record,” she said, “Bellamy Hotels is filing immediate criminal and civil claims. And I want his access revoked from every Bellamy property before sunset.”
Pierce went pale again.
For the first time, he seemed to understand this was not a scandal he could style his way through.
May you like
It was a collapse.
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