Ardella dragged her exhausted body into the penthouse suite of The Plaza Hotel. She kicked her wet stiletto heels off near the door.
She walked straight into the marble bathroom and turned the shower on full blast. She stood under the scalding hot water, letting it burn away the freezing rain and the lingering ghost of Ethelbert's touch.
When she stepped out, she wrapped herself in a thick white bathrobe. She walked into the bedroom and picked up the phone she had abandoned on the bed.
The screen showed three missed calls. One from Eleanor, and two from her uncle, Gaven Price.
Seeing Gaven's name made her stomach cramp violently. She knew she could not hide from him. She pressed call back.
He answered on the first ring. Gaven's furious voice exploded through the speaker, nearly blowing out her eardrum.
"What the hell did you do at The Pinnacle Club tonight?" he roared.
He screamed that the Coffey family had just called him. They were furious that she had publicly humiliated Braden by throwing a drink in his face.
Ardella kept her voice dead and cold. "Braden was cheating on me in public. I was protecting the dignity of the Price family."
"Dignity is worthless on Wall Street!" Gaven snapped. "The only thing that matters is the merger money."
He ordered her to go to the Cloud Room tomorrow night and get on her knees to apologize to Braden.
Ardella gripped the phone tight. Her fingernails dug into her palm. "No."
The line went quiet for two seconds. Then, Gaven let out a low, evil laugh.
He spoke very slowly, "The police file from the car crash fourteen years ago is sitting in my safe right now," he said, the malice dripping from his words. "And so is the current address of that truck driver, Curley Donovan. You want it? Then you fix this merger."
The air in the room seemed to freeze. He had hit her exact weak point, twisting the knife with practiced precision. He was reminding her that he was the only person on earth who knew where the man responsible for her tragedy was hiding.
Ardella swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Her voice shook, but she forced it to stay hard. "I will handle the Coffeys. But I will not apologize."
Ardella's breathing steadied. She let the silence stretch for three agonizing seconds before she spoke. "Don't worry, Uncle," she said softly, a dangerous, icy edge creeping into her tone. "Braden has far more to lose from this engagement failing than we do. I'll make sure he reminds his father of that. The Coffeys will be begging us to stay."
Without giving him a chance to ask what leverage she held, she hung up the phone.
Her legs gave out. She slid down the wall and hit the carpet. She pulled her knees to her chest and started shaking uncontrollably.
She realized that blackmailing Braden was not enough. She needed to blow this scandal up. She needed to make it so toxic that the Coffey family would be forced to cancel the wedding themselves and pay the Price family to go away.
She forced herself to stand up. She walked to the minibar, poured a heavy glass of whiskey, and swallowed it in one burn.
The alcohol scorched her throat, bringing a small amount of clarity back to her brain. She started calculating her next PR move.
She walked toward the sofa to grab her laptop. As she got close, a very faint scent hit her nose. Oud and cedarwood.
She froze. She looked down at her damp trench coat lying on the cushions.
It was Ethelbert's scent. The short time in his car had permanently stained her clothes with his smell.
Ardella lost control of her body. She picked up the coat and buried her face deep into the fabric. She took a long, desperate breath.
The scent worked like magic. The terrifying panic caused by her uncle's threat instantly smoothed out. Her racing heart slowed down.
She squeezed her eyes shut. A fresh tear soaked into the coat. She hated herself. She hated that beneath all her armor, she was still sick with a pathological need for the man who had thrown her away.
