Chapter 4

"Everyone, look at this!"

Brenda swung the camera toward Sebastian and the bodyguards with their batons, sobbing like her heart was tearing apart.

"The rich are throwing their weight around!"

"They brought gangsters here to kill me and shut me up, just so they could steal my fiancé!"

She thrust her arm, streaked with blood, right up to the lens.

"I'm just an ordinary girl with no one to protect me. What did I ever do wrong?"

"Do poor people's lives not count as lives?"

Her little speech set the internet on fire in an instant.

Hundreds of thousands of viewers poured into the stream.

The comments scrolled past in a frantic blur.

"So arrogant! They have to be exposed!"

"So money means you can hit whoever you want? Call the police! Call them now!"

"That woman is obviously some kept mistress, dragging her sugar daddy over to lord it over the real girlfriend!"

The travelers at the lodge had been scared out of their wits by the bodyguards.

Now, with millions of people online backing them up, their nerve came flooding back.

One after another they raised their phones and started filming me and Sebastian like mad.

"Get it on camera! Post it online!"

"Let the whole country see the ugly faces of these rich pigs!"

Sebastian's brow furrowed, and he yanked his tie loose in irritation.

Nothing disgusted him more than a gutter shrew making a scene like this.

He pulled a gold-embossed checkbook straight from his inner pocket.

"Shut up!"

He drew out his pen and scratched down a string of numbers.

"Take the money and get out of this lodge right now."

Brenda let out a shriek and slammed the check down onto the floor.

"I'm not going anywhere!"

"You think you can buy off my dignity with a few filthy dollars?"

"Even if you beat me to death today, I'll make the whole internet see what you two really are!"

Her righteous little tirade set the comments ablaze all over again.

"You go, Brenda! Never bow to the rich!"

"Take down the villains! Throw these two scumbags in prison!"

The situation was seconds from spinning completely out of control.

I raised my hand and gently pressed it over Sebastian's, stopping him before he could write another check.

"Sebastian, throwing money at people like this won't work."

Slow and gentle, but leaving no room for argument, I drew him behind me.

Then I stepped forward on my own and planted myself in front of the live stream camera at the very center.

Clifford, clutching his bleeding nose, backed up two full steps, wary all over his face.

"Cecilia, what trick are you trying to pull now?"

I ignored him and pulled the key to the SUV out of my pants pocket.

I hooked the key around my finger and gave it a couple of lazy spins.

"You all want the truth, don't you?"

"As it happens, I've got a complete chain of evidence right here in my hand."

I let my cold gaze sweep over Clifford and Brenda, over those two chalk-white faces.

Then, in front of dozens of cameras, I forced the metal back cover off the car key.