Chapter 489
[ 542 words ]
Chapter 489:
Alistair then turned his head slightly, his gaze sweeping across the stunned crowd, but his words were still for Caroline. “General Romero has been waiting. He was… insistent that I bring you home without delay.” He addressed the crowd at large, his voice turning cold and formal, each word a carefully placed weight on the scale of public record. “I am Alistair Finch, Chief of Staff to General Augustus Romero. I am here to escort the General’s daughter-in-law to the family estate.”
He glanced at the heavy duffel bag resting beside Caroline’s boot, then at the faint bandaging still visible across her scraped knuckles. He did not wait for her to lift it again. With a small motion of two fingers, he summoned the second man in the dark suit.
The second man stepped forward at once, lifted the duffel from the platform, and carried it as if it weighed nothing. Caroline’s hands remained at her sides, spared the strain she had been pretending not to feel since leaving the train.
“The car is waiting, ma’am,” Alistair said, his tone softening again as he spoke to Caroline.
I𝗻𝗌t𝖺n𝘁 а𝖼𝖼𝘦𝘴𝗌 𝗈𝘯 𝗀𝘢𝘭ո𝗼ve𝗅𝘴.c𝗈𝗺
She simply nodded, her face unreadable. There was no triumph in her expression, no hint of “I told you so.” There was only a quiet weariness and a desire to be gone. She fell into step beside him. The second man moved ahead, clearing a path through the gawking onlookers. They walked toward the main hall, a small, untouchable island of power moving through a sea of stunned civilians.
The platform was utterly silent for a full five seconds after they disappeared from view. Then, a furious wave of whispers erupted.
“Romero? As in, the Romeros?”
“Did he say daughter-in-law? She’s married to Jarrod Romero?”
“The ‘Ice Colonel’? No way…”
Vivian Rusk made a small, strangled sound. The blood had completely left her face, leaving it a pasty, sickly white. Her legs gave out, and she stumbled back against the pillar Caroline had just vacated. She had just publicly accused the wife of one of the most powerful, and reputedly ruthless, men in the Department of Defense of trading intimacy for professional advancement.
“Mrs. Romero… I… I’m sorry!” she cried out toward the empty archway, her voice a pathetic, trembling squeak.
But Caroline was long gone.
Brenna O’Malley stared at Vivian, her expression one of pure, unadulterated contempt. It was the look one gives something they’ve just scraped off the bottom of their shoe.
“Vivian,” Brenna said, her voice dangerously sweet. “My father is hosting a fundraiser for the hospital’s new pediatric wing next month. I’ll be sure to tell him to remove your family from the invitation list. In fact, consider all ties between the O’Malley family and the Rusk family permanently severed.”
She didn’t wait for a reply. She turned on her heel, her head held high, and strode toward the exit where her own family’s car was waiting. She was done with them.
The other two girls who had been part of Vivian’s clique looked at each other in horror, the reality of their situation crashing down on them. They had hitched their wagon to a fool, and she had just driven them all off a cliff. Their futures in the competitive D.C. medical world were likely over before they had even begun.
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