Chapter 4 - Uninvited Guests at the Marlowe
At eight o'clock that evening, the house phone in my suite chimed.
"Ms. Brooks," the front desk manager whispered, her tone anxious. "Mrs. Vivian Parker is in the lobby. She's creating a scene. She's demanding the master key to your penthouse and insisting that you owe her son an audience."
I walked over to the security monitor beside my desk and flicked to the lobby camera feed.
Vivian was pacing the Italian marble floor near the concierge desk, clutching an emerald alligator handbag. Behind her, sitting on a velvet settee and looking utterly exhausted, was Olivia Hayes. Olivia was still in her pale blue dress, her hands resting protectively over her swollen belly.
Ethan was nowhere to be seen.
"Send them up to the mezzanine conference room," I told the manager. "Tell security to search their bags for recording devices, and post two guards outside the door."
Five minutes later, I walked into Mezzanine Room B.
Vivian spun around the moment the heavy walnut doors clicked shut. "Natalie! How dare you instruct your staff to bar me from the elevators! Do you have any idea how much embarrassment you caused today? The entire country club circuit is buzzing! Senator Caldwell’s wife called me twice!"
"You're in my hotel, Vivian," I said coldly, walking to the head of the conference table and pulling out a leather chair. I didn't invite them to sit. "You're lucky I didn't have you arrested for trespassing."
"You made a public circus out of an administrative oversight!" Vivian stepped forward, her voice rising in pitch. "Ethan is the CEO of a multi-million-dollar corporation! He cannot be subjected to emotional tantrums right before the most critical funding milestone of his life!"
"An administrative oversight?" I looked over Vivian’s shoulder at Olivia, who had quietly slipped into a chair near the wall. "Olivia, did Ethan tell you he was marrying me today?"
Olivia flinched. She looked up, her eyes red-rimmed and swollen. "He told me he had to attend a private investor gala. But someone from the catering company recognized him on Instagram and sent me the bridal registry. When I saw the venue, I... I drove three hours in my sister's car."
"She’s a hysterical blackmailer!" Vivian snapped, waving a dismissive hand at Olivia. "We gave her family forty thousand dollars last year to stay in Ohio! She took the money and breached the non-disclosure agreement!"
"That money was for my mother's chemotherapy, which Ethan promised to pay because he forced me to sign away my rights to our first apartment!" Olivia shouted, her voice breaking into ragged sobs. "He married me in Reno when we were both twenty-two, Mrs. Parker! I worked two shifts at a diner to pay his college tuition while he developed his first prototype! And the moment he got funding, you told him I was low-class trash who would ruin his venture rounds!"
I stared at Vivian. The matriarch didn't even blink. Her expression was pure ice.
"Ethan outgrew you, Olivia," Vivian said smoothly. "Just as he needs a partner who understands high society and enterprise leadership. Natalie possesses the social capital he requires." Vivian turned back to me, softening her expression into a grotesque mimicry of maternal affection. "Natalie, darling. Think rationally. Ethan was weak. Men have physical needs, and Olivia took advantage of him during a stressful trip to Cleveland. But you are the woman he chose to walk down the aisle with. Forgive this minor indiscretion. Sign the joint statement we prepared. We will tell the press it was a staged performance for an avant-garde health campaign, or a disgruntled ex-employee. ClearPath will get its sixteen million on Monday, and your future will be secured."
I looked at Vivian, marveling at the bottomless depth of her delusion.
"And what happens to Olivia and the baby?" I asked softly.
"We have a trust fund set up in Wyoming," Vivian replied without missing a beat. "A modest monthly stipend on the condition that she relocates to Idaho and surrenders all parental naming rights. Ethan will not be distracted by court battles."
Olivia let out a choked sound and buried her face in her hands.
"You are a monster, Vivian," I said quietly.
Vivian's eyes narrowed. "I am a mother protecting her family's empire. Do not act so self-righteous, Natalie. Without Ethan’s brilliance, you are just an innkeeper with inherited real estate. If you break this engagement publicly, Ethan will take his software to New York and leave you with the bill for a half-million-dollar aborted wedding. You need him just as much as he needs your social standing."
"Is that what he told you?" I asked.
"He doesn't need to tell me. I know how the world works." Vivian sneered. "Now, give me the master key to his suite so we can collect his personal documents, and have your PR team release the retraction by midnight."
I stood up. I walked over to Olivia, pulled a box of tissues from the sideboard, and set it gently in front of her.
"Olivia," I said, my voice gentle. "Did you bring your marriage certificate and your medical records?"
Olivia nodded timidly, patting her canvas tote bag.
"Good," I said. "Tonight, you are staying in the Presidential Suite on the twentieth floor. Room service is on the house. My personal physician will examine you at nine o'clock tomorrow morning to ensure the stress hasn't harmed your pregnancy."
Olivia looked up, utterly shocked. "Why... why are you helping me?"
"Because you were Ethan's first victim," I said. "And unlike him, I don't abandon people when they cease to be convenient."
Vivian gasped, stepping in front of me. "What is the meaning of this? You cannot harbor this woman!"
I turned to the two security guards standing at the door. "Remove Mrs. Parker from the premises. If she sets foot on Marlowe property again, have the police charge her with criminal trespass."
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"You will regret this, Natalie Brooks!" Vivian shrieked as the two burly guards firmly took her by the elbows, steering her toward the service lift. "Ethan will ruin you! Apex Horizon will pull their money the second they hear about this scandal, and ClearPath will burn, and it will be your fault!"
"Apex Horizon has already made their decision, Vivian," I said coldly as the doors slid shut on her outraged face. "You just haven't read the terms yet."
