Chapter 2 – The Price of Loyalty
Half an hour.
That’s all it took for Chloe Frost’s life to land on my desk in a neat digital folder.
Divorced parents.
Father’s bankruptcy and suicide.
Stepmother who never asked her to stay.
After that, the trail was predictable.
Private parties in the Hamptons.
Yacht weekends in Miami.
“Gifts” wired from married accounts.
Rich boys who learned the hard way that some smiles come with invoices.
I scrolled through the photos slowly.
Chloe on a balcony in Monaco, champagne in hand, laughing at someone off-camera.
Chloe leaving a London hotel at dawn, sunglasses hiding last night’s mascara.
My son had fallen for the oldest performance in the book.
And he’d brought it home like a trophy.
I closed the file.
The statement went live at noon.
Harrington Enterprises officially distancing itself from Alexander Harrington.
Within minutes, it was trending.
I didn’t smile.
I just forwarded select pieces to a few trusted contacts in media.
Old scandals about Reginald’s mistress.
My late husband’s indiscretions.
Alex’s European party photos—ones I’d quietly collected over the years.
Let the internet feast.
By evening, Chloe’s name was trending alongside his.
Old “friends” from overseas began posting receipts.
Screenshots.
Hotel bills.
One particularly unflattering video from a rooftop in Ibiza.
I didn’t watch it all.
I didn’t need to.
The damage was doing itself.
Sophia brought me tea around nine.
“You didn’t have to go this hard,” she said quietly.
I took the cup.
“Yes,” I said. “I did.”
She sat across from me.
“He’ll hate you for this.”
I sipped the tea.
It was perfect, as always.
“He already does,” I said. “This just makes it official.”