Free Web NovelChapter 27: Red Car
Ten minutes later, a red Ferrari came through the Graystone gates and stopped right in front of him.
For a second he didn’t seem to register that it was me behind the wheel. I’d spent years being careful never to outshine Liam, always shrinking myself down so he could feel bigger standing next to me.
I didn’t have to do that anymore.
I lowered the top and looked at him.
"Why are you looking for me?"
"Valerie." He said my name like it cost him something.
He stared at the car, then at me, and I watched the bitterness creep across his face. He hadn’t expected any of this. He definitely hadn’t expected me to be doing better than ever, let alone pulling up in a car worth more than most people’s houses like I had somewhere far more important to be.
"Say what you came here to say," I said, flat.
He pulled himself together and slid into the voice he always used when he wanted to remind me who was supposedly in charge.
"E-Style Magazine. The company already accepted the booking on your behalf, and you don’t get to turn it down. I don’t care what family you come from. You’re still under contract with Xova, and I’m still your boss. For the sake of the company, you’re going to let our team write a statement in your name making it clear we ended things a long time ago and that Amara was never a mistress."
"I already had Quinn decline it," I said. "I’ve already told them I’m not feeling well."
"Valerie, do you have any loyalty to this company at all?" His voice climbed. "We’re done. You don’t get to do whatever you want at Xova anymore. You signed a contract, and that means you follow the company’s decisions. Unless you’re trying to breach it."
I didn’t actually care about the breach clause. But I wasn’t handing Liam one more dollar after everything he’d already cost me.
My plan was to watch him and Amara lose everything, together, in public. A penalty fee would only slow that down.
"The magazine thing is already locked in. I can’t undo it now," I said, letting him think he’d won something. "But have your team send me the statement. I’ll deliver it myself, live, at Wednesday’s event. It’ll land a lot harder coming from me on a stage than in some press release."
His whole posture eased. He nodded, already convinced.
"That could work. You’re really willing to help clean this up?"
I met his eyes and held them.
"Liam, whatever you’ve done to me, I’m not going to be careless with you. I know Amara’s the one pushing all of this."
I said it without a trace of sarcasm. I wanted it to sound exactly like what he expected to hear, the same woman who used to forgive him for everything.
"It better be true," he said.
Then he got back in his car and left without another word.
He drove off fast, like something about standing there too long might have made him start wanting things he’d already thrown away. I watched his car shrink down the drive until it disappeared, and the corner of my mouth curved up on its own.
Even while giving orders, Liam couldn’t see how ridiculous he looked. He had betrayed me in every way there was, and now here he was, trying to use me to save both his own reputation and Amara’s.
Do you have any shame left at all, Liam? I wondered.
As it turned out, he wasn’t just shameless.
He genuinely believed he was being reasonable.
The next morning, both Xova Entertainment and the event organizers released official statements confirming my appearance at the event and announcing how the public could get tickets.
The comments came almost immediately.
Valerie’s actually showing up for this brand? Is she that desperate? If she goes through with it, she’s just as trashy as the company she’s endorsing.
I really thought she had potential once. Guess I was wrong.
After tomorrow, both you and that cheap little brand can disappear.
I’ll give Valerie one thing. Anyone else would’ve backed out by now. She’s officially the most shameless woman in the industry.
I scrolled through them without much reaction.
Exactly what Amara wanted.
She’d spent days setting the stage for this. In her mind, tomorrow was supposed to be the day I walked straight into my own downfall. She probably thought I was panicking, desperately trying to figure out how to survive what she’d carefully arranged.
If she was celebrating already...
I almost felt bad for her.
Because she had no idea she was about to watch her own plan explode in her face.
That same day, I sat across from Liam in his office, going over what I was supposedly going to say at the event.
He slid a printed script across the desk, talking like it had never once occurred to him that I might refuse.
"Memorize this tonight. Tomorrow you say it to the press, word for word. That’s the entire reason you’re going."
I looked down at the pages in my hands and had to read the first line twice before it actually sank in.
Did he feel anything at all, handing me this?
On the drive home, Quinn was behind the wheel with Nicole and me in the back. Nicole jabbed a finger at the script in my lap, voice tight with fury.
"Is Liam out of his mind? He’ll do anything to fix Amara’s reputation, and he doesn’t even blink about what it costs you. He doesn’t have a conscience left."
Quinn caught my eyes in the rearview mirror.
My face stayed perfectly calm. Even Quinn, who’d spent years in this industry and thought she’d seen everything it had to offer, looked like she couldn’t quite stomach this one. But I was the one actually carrying it, and I didn’t let a single crack show.
"Valerie, what do you need from me tomorrow?" Quinn asked. "Everything you wanted is ready. All the evidence, all of it. I even got a recording of Amara laying out exactly how she planned to block your bookings."
"Tomorrow," I said, my voice even, "I’m going to use that stage to announce that I’m officially back."
I paused and looked straight at her.
"I trust Nicole with my life. But you, Quinn."
