Chapter 57
No.1
The private elevator chimed softly as it reached the top floor. The brushed steel doors slid open.
Elisa stepped out into the dimly lit, heavily carpeted hallway of the penthouse level.
Standing exactly three feet from the heavy oak door of her suite was August.
He was leaning against the flocked wallpaper, one hand tucked into his tuxedo pocket, the other holding a lit cigarette. The tip glowed bright orange in the gloom. When he saw her, he dropped the cigarette onto the expensive carpet and crushed it out with the heel of his Italian leather shoe.
He looked nervous. The arrogant swagger from the auction floor was completely gone, replaced by a tense,jittery energy.
Elisa stopped walking. She stood ten feet away from him. She didn't reach for her keycard. She just stared at him, her eyes completely blank, analyzing him like
a malfunctioning piece of hardware.
August cleared his throat. The silence was suffocating him.
No.2
He pulled his hand out of his tuxedo pocket. He was holding a square, deep blue velvet box.
He took a step toward her and held the box out. His chin tilted up, trying to project a facade of generous authority.
"Open it," August commanded, though his voice lacked its usual thunder.
Elisa didn't move her hands. She dropped her gaze to the box. She didn't need to open it. She knew exactly what was inside. The fifteen-million-dollar sapphire amulet.
She looked back up at his face.
"What's the matter?" Elisa asked, her voice a flat,mechanical drone. "Did your mistress complain that it was too heavy for her delicate neck? Are you bringing me her discarded trash?"
August's jaw clenched. A flash of guilt mixed with irritation crossed his eyes. She had hit the nail
exactly on the head. Allena had complained the antique metal scratched her skin and demanded a modern diamond instead.
No.3
"I bought it to compensate you," August lied, his voice tight. "Take it. It's worth fifteen million."
Elisa let out a short, breathy scoff. She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Cut the bullshit, August," Elisa said coldly. "You don't do anything without a price. What do you need?"
August swallowed hard. He looked up and down the empty hallway, paranoid.
He took another step closer, lowering his voice to a harsh whisper. "My mother has security personnel stationed at the elevator banks on this floor. She is monitoring my movements. She thinks Allena and I are becoming a liability. She warned me that if another scandal breaks at this event, she'll rally the board to kill my acquisition deal. Being seen leaving Allena's suite at dawn is exactly the ammunition she's looking for."
He paused, his eyes darting away from her face.
"I need to come into your room for ten minutes,"August said, rushing the words out. "Just long enough to bypass the hallway cameras. Then I will go out to the connecting balcony and cross over into Allena's suite next door."
The words hung in the quiet hallway.
No.4
For a moment, Elisa's brain simply refused to process the sheer, astronomical audacity of the request.
Her legal husband. The man who had sworn to protect her. He was offering her a necklace he had maliciously stolen from her at an auction, using it as a bribe so she would provide physical cover for him to go fuck his mistress in the room next door.②
It was a level of moral bankruptcy so profound it defied human language.
Elisa didn't feel anger.Anger required a baseline of respect to be violated. She felt a cold, physiological nausea, like she was standing next to a rotting corpse.
August saw her staring at him. He panicked,thrusting the velvet box forcefully against her chest.
"Take the damn box, Elisa!" August hissed. "It's fifteen million dollars! That's more than enough to buy ten minutes of your silence!"
Elisa looked down at the velvet box pressed against her sternum.
She thought of Kayden. She thought of the little girl who deserved the protection this amnulet symbolized.She was not going to let this sociopath keep it.
No.5
Elisa raised her hand and snatched the box from his grip.
She reached into her pocket, pulled out the gold keycard, and swiped it against the lock. Click.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside,leaving the door wide open for him. As she did, her thumb discreetly slid across the screen of her phone,activating the voice memo app. It was a reflex Faye had drilled into her: when a predator cornered you,you documented the encounter.
"Ten minutes," Elisa said, her voice dropping to a terrifying, absolute zero. "If you are in my room on the eleventh minute, I will call security and tell them an intruder is trying to assault me."
August exhaled a massive breath of relief. He quickly stepped into the penthouse and shut the door behind him.
Elisa didn't turn on the main lights. She left the room bathed in the dim glow of the entryway sconces. She walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and stared out into the pitch-black night, her back completely turned to him.
August stood awkwardly in the center of the living room.
He looked at her rigid spine. He expected her to yell.He expected her to throw the box at his head. He expected some form of passionate hatred.
No.6
But there was nothing. The silence in the room was absolute. It was the silence of a tomb. A weird,hollow ache suddenly bloomed in the center of August's chest, a terrifying realization that he had completely,permanently lost his grip on her soul.
He checked his heavy Rolex. Ten minutes exactly.
"I'm leaving," August muttered.
Elisa didn't turn around. She simply raised her right
hand and pointed a single finger toward the heavy glass doors leading to the balcony.
August gritted his teeth. He walked over to the glass doors, slid them open, and stepped out into the freezing wind. He hiked up his expensive tuxedo pants and awkwardly, pathetically, climbed over the wrought-iron divider separating the two balconies.
He disappeared into the dark.
Elisa walked over to the glass doors. She slammed them shut, engaged the heavy metal lock, and yanked the thick blackout curtains closed,completely sealing off the outside world.
No.7
She reached a hand up, her fingers subconsciously brushing against her phone in her suit pocket. A wave of absolute, lethal satisfaction washed over her.Every single pathetic, bribing word he had just spoken was now a digital file, another nail securely driven into his coffin.
She stood in the quiet room. She opened the blue velvet box.
The sapphire amulet glowed in te dim light.③
Elisa smiled. It was a soft, genuine smile meant only for the daughter hiding miles away.
"I got it back for you, Kayden," Elisa whispered.
She snapped the box shut. August Chambers was officially dead to her. Tomorrow, the real blood would flow.