Chapter 275
[ 505 words ]
Chapter 275:
She walked through the heavy brass doors. The maître d’ didn’t ask for her name. He simply took one look at her cheap clothes and guided her to a private room in the back.
The heavy oak door was pushed open.
The room was soundproofed, decorated with expensive silk wallpaper and antique French furniture.
Sitting at the center table, sipping tea from a bone china cup, was Cornelia McDowell Romero, Jarrod’s elegant and venomous stepmother.
Yо𝗎𝗋 ոex𝘁 fа𝗏оr𝘪𝘁𝘦 rе𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝗌 𝘰𝗇 𝗀𝖺l𝗇оve𝗹𝘀.𝗰𝘰𝗆
Cornelia was flanked by two massive, stoic bodyguards in tailored suits. They created a physically intimidating blockade.
Cornelia looked up. Her eyes swept over Caroline’s cheap clothes with absolute disdain. A triumphant smirk played on her red lips.
She set her teacup down with a soft clink. She gestured to the empty chair opposite her.
“Welcome to the real world, Miss Thompson,” Cornelia purred.
Caroline maintained a perfectly neutral expression. She completely ignored the intimidating bodyguards and took a seat opposite Cornelia at the antique table.
Cornelia didn’t offer her tea.
Instead, she slid a thick manila folder across the polished wood. It stopped right in front of Caroline.
Caroline opened the folder. Inside was a comprehensive dossier detailing her entire fabricated middle-class background, her parents’ fake debts, and her meager nursing salary.
Cornelia leaned back. Her tone dripped with fake sympathy.
“It must be exhausting, Caroline,” Cornelia sighed. “Pretending to belong in Jarrod’s world with such a pathetic pedigree.”
Meanwhile, parked in an alley just half a block away from the tea room, a black, unmarked surveillance van hummed quietly.
Inside the van, Jarrod sat in front of a bank of glowing monitors. He wore a tactical headset. His face was an unreadable mask of cold fury.
K.C. Bell sat at the console. He had successfully hijacked the tea room’s internal security microphone system within minutes of Caroline’s arrival.
Through the headset, Jarrod heard Cornelia’s condescending voice loud and clear. His fists clenched so hard his leather tactical gloves creaked.
Back in the room, Caroline flipped through the dossier. She feigned a look of mild embarrassment, playing right into Cornelia’s expectation of a flustered gold digger.
Cornelia smiled, thinking she had the upper hand. She reached into her designer handbag and pulled out a crisp piece of paper.
She placed it on the table. It was a cashier’s check made out to Caroline Thompson for fifty thousand dollars.
“This is merely a retainer,” Cornelia explained smoothly. “Pocket change to help you relocate to a different city and start fresh.”
Cornelia then dropped the real bait.
“If you sign a pre-drafted annulment agreement claiming the marriage was unconsummated,” Cornelia offered, “I will wire one million dollars to an offshore account in your name.”
In the surveillance van, K.C. Bell’s lips thinned into a line of pure contempt. He knew the Colonel’s wife was not a woman who could be bought for a million dollars. The tension in the van spiked for a different reason: anticipation of Cornelia’s inevitable failure.
Jarrod’s jaw was locked. He stared at the audio waveform on the screen. His heart pounded with a sudden, suffocating fear. This was the ultimate test of Caroline’s loyalty.
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