Chapter 7 - The Desperate Mistress
While Victoria sat sobbing amid cardboard boxes on the rain-soaked curb, Clara was pacing frantically across her suite at the Grand Regency Hotel. The management had just disabled her room key and sent two security officers to inform her that her stay was being terminated due to an invalid credit card.
""Do you know who I am?"" Clara screamed at the hotel manager. ""I am carrying Julian Sterling’s child! When he fixes this, he will buy this entire hotel and fire every single one of you!""
The manager remained entirely stone-faced. ""Miss Aldridge, Mr. Sterling's personal accounts have negative balances across all major networks. Furthermore, your father specifically instructed us not to extend you any credit. Please vacate within ten minutes or we will escort you off the premises.""
Clara burst into furious tears, grabbing her designer handbags and storming down the marble lobby. As she exited through the revolving glass doors, she spotted a sleek black Maybach pulling up to the curb.
The tinted window rolled down halfway. Inside sat Elena, looking radiant, poised, and untouchable.
Clara’s rage boiled over. She charged toward the vehicle, pounding her manicured fists against the bulletproof glass. ""You! You did this, didn't you, you pathetic bitch! You're jealous because Julian loves me! Because I’m giving him the child you could never have!""
Elena didn't roll the window down any further. She simply looked at Clara with cool, detached pity.
""You think this child is your golden ticket, Clara?"" Elena’s voice was barely a murmur, amplified softly through the external speaker. ""Julian doesn't love you. He loved the illusion of your father's fortune. And now that your father has cut you off, you are nothing to him but another mouth he cannot afford to feed.""
""He will marry me!"" Clara yelled, mascara running down her cheeks in hideous black streaks. ""We are a family!""
Elena’s gaze flickered downward toward Clara’s stomach, then back to her desperate eyes. A flicker of cold resolve passed across Elena’s features.
""Ask Julian about the secret safety deposit box in Geneva, Clara,"" Elena said softly. ""Ask him why he booked a one-way ticket to Buenos Aires under an assumed name for tomorrow night... and why there's only one seat reserved.""
Clara froze. The breath rushed out of her lungs as if she had been punched in the gut. ""What... what are you talking about?""
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""He’s running,"" Elena said, pressing the button to roll up the window. ""And he's leaving you behind to face the debt collectors alone.""
The Maybach pulled away, leaving Clara paralyzed on the rainy sidewalk as the cold truth began to dawn on her.
