Chapter Twenty #3
“Why do you look like you are being transferred tomorrow?”
“I prefer early worry.”
“That explains the goalie position.”
Emmett watched her read the contract again.
“What do you think?” he asked.
Piper looked up.
“I think you should take it if your attorney approves.”
The answer came cleanly.
No visible sacrifice.
No expectation that he refuse to prove something.
“What about us?” he asked.
“We have cars.”
“That is your romantic plan?”
“Six hours is inconvenient, not international.”
“You hate driving after dark.”
“I can travel before sunset.”
“You have events.”
“You have games.”
Emmett waited.
Piper stepped closer.
“We plan it,” she said.
The phrase carried all the control Owen had mocked.
With Emmett, it sounded like partnership.
“Together?” he asked.
“Do not become emotional.”
“Too late.”
Piper folded the offer and returned it.
“Accept after review.”
“That sounded like an order.”
“It was an opinion wearing excellent shoes.”
Emmett looked down at her black heels.
“They are practical.”
“Leave.”
He smiled.
Piper stared.
The smile widened.
“You are doing that more often,” she said.
“Your fault.”
“I will accept responsibility.”
Emmett leaned closer.
No cameras were active.
Every investigator had confirmed it.
He still waited.
Piper touched his jaw.
“Not here.”
He stopped.
“The fourth ending,” she said. “I need this platform to belong to the clients again.”
Emmett nodded.
“Where?”
“Date four.”
“After the showcase.”
“Yes.”
“Six days.”
“You survived months.”
“Poorly.”
Piper smiled and walked toward Daniel.
Emmett watched her go.
His temporary phone rang inside his pocket.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Emmett Novak.”
A woman’s voice spoke.
Celeste Rowan.
“You should congratulate Piper. The client meeting tested very well.”
Every muscle in Emmett’s body tightened.
“No devices were inside.”
“We did not need devices.”
He looked across the venue.
Clients collected coats. Venue staff moved chairs. Investigators guarded the disconnected control station.
Someone in the room had reported to Vantage.
“What do you want?” Emmett asked.
“To help you make an informed decision about your contract.”
His attention sharpened.
“How do you know about it?”
Celeste laughed softly.
“Martin Ellis sent the offer from a networked printer. Privacy is mostly optimism.”
Emmett looked toward Piper.
She was speaking with Lily Arden near the ceremony platform.
“What decision?” he asked.
“Sign with the club, and Vantage releases you from the finale.”
Emmett waited her out.
Celeste continued.
“Piper wears the dress alone. She rejects the manufactured romance. She becomes the heroine who chooses herself. You leave for your career.”
Ending B.
Bride chooses independence.
They were trying to separate them through an offer that looked like freedom.
“And if I refuse?” Emmett asked.
“We show the club every private moment you concealed during their review.”
“There is no misconduct.”
“Perhaps.”
The amusement disappeared from Celeste’s voice.
“But professional organizations dislike uncertainty. We can create years of it.”
Emmett looked at the unsigned contract in his hand.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Accept the offer. Leave the showcase before the finale. Do not tell Piper why.”
The same private instruction.
The same isolation.
Emmett watched Piper laugh at something Lily said.
“No private offers,” he said.
Celeste became quiet.
Emmett activated the phone’s speaker and held it toward Daniel as he approached.
“Tell Piper yourself.”
Piper turned.
Her smile disappeared when she recognized the voice.
Celeste let out a breath through the line.
“You two are becoming difficult to produce.”
“That is the plan,” Piper said.
The call ended.
Daniel reached for the phone.
Before Emmett could hand it over, a message appeared on the small screen.
No image.
Only text.
ENDING D ACCEPTED.
A second message followed.
THE CLIENTS CHOOSE.
Piper moved beside him.
“What does that mean?”
The venue doors locked.
Every disconnected camera light turned green.
The ceremony-platform screen activated.
Forty-nine names appeared.
Every client who had attended the meeting.
Beside each name was a live voting total.
Stay with Quinn Events.
Leave Quinn Events.
Trust Piper.
Blame Piper.
The numbers moved in real time.
Piper stared at the screen.
Emmett looked toward the investigators.
The local server had been disconnected.
The relays had been seized.
Vantage was not broadcasting through its equipment.
Daniel’s face changed as he read the network status.
“The venue system is not running this.”
“Then what is?” Piper asked.
The giant guest-recognition towers near the entrance opened at the base.
Small internal screens lit behind their polished panels.
Sasha stepped backward.
“They have cellular transmitters.”
The towers had never needed the venue network.
They had been listening during the entire client meeting.
A title appeared above the voting names.
THE FOURTH ENDING
Then one final instruction filled the ceremony screen.
THE AUDIENCE HAS UNTIL THE SHOWCASE TO DECIDE WHETHER PIPER QUINN DESERVES TO KEEP HER BUSINESS.