Chapter 2: The Document With the Seal
Charlotte didn't cry.
She pressed one hand against the cold marble floor and slowly pushed herself up.
Her knees were shaking.
Her face burned.
But her eyes stayed steady.
The socialite — a woman named Vivienne Holt, known across the city for her charity galas and her cruelty behind closed doors — stepped closer.
"Still here?" Vivienne said, her voice dropping to something colder.
"Security.
Remove her.
Now."
Two guards moved forward.
Charlotte didn't flinch.
She reached into the front pocket of her plain jacket and pulled out a single folded document.
She held it up without a word.
One of the guards stopped.
He recognized the seal at the top of the page.
Everyone in the legal department of the Solmere Hotel knew that seal.
Vivienne snatched the paper from Charlotte's hand before anyone else could read it.
Her eyes moved fast across the page.
Then they stopped.
Her face went white.
"This is fake," Vivienne said.
But her voice had changed.
"Call Mr.
Hargrove," Charlotte said quietly.
"He'll confirm it."
The lobby went completely still.
Because everyone knew the name Hargrove.
He was the one man who had managed the Solmere Empire's legal affairs for thirty years.
And he was the one man Vivienne had been desperately trying to reach all morning.
A phone rang somewhere near the front desk.
The receptionist looked up slowly.
May you like
Her eyes found Charlotte's.
And her face went pale.
