Chapter 3 - The Ambush at the Estate
The temperature in the bedroom seemed to drop twenty degrees.
Derek swallowed hard, taking an instinctive step backward away from Tiffany. “Cameron. What… what are you doing here? You never come to the house.”
“It’s a good thing I did,” Cameron said, his voice a low, lethal purr as he stepped fully into the room. Gabrielle followed closely behind, moving immediately to Simone’s side and wrapping a protective arm around her younger sister.
“Are you okay, baby?” Gabrielle whispered, her eyes scanning Simone for injuries. Simone nodded, leaning into her sister’s warmth, the sheer relief of their presence nearly making her collapse.
“Cam, this is a private matter,” Derek stammered, trying to regain some semblance of authority. He puffed out his chest. “Simone and I are separating. Tiffany is my guest.”
Cameron didn’t even look at Derek. His dark, piercing gaze was locked entirely on Tiffany. Tiffany, who usually thrived on intimidating others, suddenly found herself shrinking under the weight of a man who commanded global markets.
“Tiffany Blake,” Cameron said, tasting the name like poison on his tongue. “Daughter of Richard Blake. You run a boutique PR firm in the Loop. You currently have twelve major corporate sponsors for your lifestyle brand.”
Tiffany lifted her chin, though her voice shook slightly. “Yes. And?”
Cameron finally smiled, but it was a terrifying expression. “Not anymore. Over the last hour, I made a few phone calls. Your PR firm’s lease is owned by a subsidiary of Rivers Industries. You are being evicted. Your sponsors? Seven of them rely on Rivers tech infrastructure for their logistics. I suggested they drop you, or they might find their enterprise contracts revoked. They all agreed. You are financially ruined.”
Tiffany’s jaw dropped. The color completely drained from her heavily contoured face. “You… you can’t do that! Derek!” She turned to him, clawing at his arm. “Derek, do something!”
Derek tried to step forward. “Cameron, you’ve gone too far. You can’t just—”
“Shut up, Derek,” Cameron snapped, the sudden volume of his voice making both Derek and Tiffany flinch. Cameron walked slowly until he was inches from his brother’s face. “You let this cheap, irrelevant parasite put her hands on your pregnant wife. You sat there. You did nothing. You are a disgrace to the Rivers name, and you are a disgrace to the memory of our mother.”
Derek’s face flushed with anger and humiliation. “This is my house! You can’t come in here and dictate—”
“It’s not your house,” Gabrielle interrupted loudly, stepping forward with a crisp manila folder in her hands. She tossed it onto the bed, right over Tiffany’s designer handbag. “As part of my retainer, I reviewed public property records on the drive over. This estate was purchased through the Rivers Family Trust. The sole controller of that trust is Cameron.”
Derek blinked, the reality of his situation suddenly crashing down on him.
Cameron didn’t break eye contact with his brother. “You have exactly five minutes to get your mistress out of my property. If she is not past the front gates by 3:05 PM, I am having her arrested for assault and battery. We have the video from the jet, Derek. You are finished.”
Tiffany let out a high-pitched sob of panic. Without another word to Derek, she grabbed her handbag off the bed and bolted out of the room, her high heels clacking frantically down the hardwood stairs.
Derek stood alone, suddenly looking like a very small, very lost child. “Cam… where am I supposed to go?”
“I don’t care,” Cameron said coldly. “Your credit cards are frozen. Your corporate accounts are locked. Sleep in your car. Now get out.”
Defeated, humiliated, and terrified, Derek turned and walked out of the bedroom, his shoulders slumped. The heavy front door slammed shut a minute later.
The silence that followed was entirely different from the one before. It was the silence of a tumor being removed.
Simone let out a shuddering breath, her legs finally giving out. Cameron moved faster than Gabrielle, catching Simone by the waist before she could hit the floor. His large hands were incredibly gentle as he helped her sit on the edge of the mattress.
“I’ve got you,” Cameron said softly, a total contrast to the monster he had been moments before. “You’re safe now, Simone. I promise you.”
Simone looked up at him, tears welling in her eyes. She had always thought Cameron was a machine, a man who only cared about numbers and acquisitions. But looking at him now, she saw a depth of empathy and protective fury that took her breath away.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
May you like
“Pack whatever you want,” Cameron told her gently. “But you aren’t staying here. This house has too many bad memories. You’re coming to stay at my penthouse. It has top-tier security, and it’s five minutes from Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Gabrielle is going to legally obliterate my brother, and I am going to make sure you and my niece never have to worry about a single thing for the rest of your lives.”
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