Chapter 5: Returning the Muddy Suitcase
I looked down at the woman weeping at my feet.
I slowly, deliberately pulled my foot back a few inches, ensuring that Eleanor’s desperate, grasping hands did not touch the hem of my emerald silk gown.
“Grief?” I asked, lowering the microphone so only she, Howard, and the immediate circle around them could hear. I let out a short, cold laugh that held absolutely no warmth.
“Grief makes people cry, Eleanor,” I said, staring into her terrified, tear-streaked eyes. “Grief makes people seek comfort. Throwing your dead son’s widow out into the rain and tossing his last keepsakes into a mud puddle isn’t grief. It’s cruelty. It’s the action of a parasite realizing it has lost control of the host.”
I looked over at Chloe, who was standing frozen in the crowd, her face pale, completely stripped of her usual snark and venom.
I raised my hand and gestured to the back of the room.
“Security,” I called out, my voice clear and commanding.
Instantly, six massive, highly trained bodyguards—men hired by Mr. Vance’s firm to replace Howard’s loyalists—stepped forward from the shadows. They moved with military precision, parting the crowd effortlessly.
“Please escort these non-shareholders off the premises,” I instructed the head of security, pointing at Howard, Eleanor, and Chloe. “They are causing a scene and polluting our charitable atmosphere.”
“Audrey! You are a demon!” Chloe screamed hysterically as two large men grabbed her by the arms and began frog-marching her toward the exit. “You’re a monster!”
“I am simply the consequences of your own actions, Chloe,” I replied calmly.
As the security team hauled Howard, who was still hyperventilating, and a sobbing Eleanor away from the stage, I leaned forward, speaking into the microphone one last time so their humiliation was absolute.
“By the way, Eleanor,” I called after them, my voice ringing with finality. “The massive estate you are currently living in? It is technically registered as a corporate asset of Washington Shipping. It belongs to the company. Which means, it belongs to me.”
Eleanor stopped struggling, looking back at me with absolute, crushing despair.
“You have exactly twenty-four hours to pack your personal belongings and vacate my property,” I declared. “If you are not gone by midnight tomorrow, I will have my security team drag your expensive suitcases out and throw everything you own onto the front lawn.”
I offered her a cold, empty smile.
“I’m sure you’re quite familiar with how that works.”
The heavy brass doors of the ballroom slammed shut behind them, cutting off their screams, effectively erasing them from the empire they had tried to steal.
