Chapter 6 - THE GILDED CAGE
Chloe sat in a motel room on the outskirts of the city,
her designer bags piled in the corner like a monument to a life that had vanished.
She had lost the penthouse,
the credit cards,
and the man who was supposed to be her golden ticket.
She looked at her stomach,
the secret she had hoped would save her.
The father of the baby was a bartender at a club she frequented when Adrian was away on "business."
A man who had no money,
no name,
and no future.
She had thought she could pass it off as Adrian’s,
relying on his desperation for an heir to blind him to the truth.
And it had worked,
until Elena stepped in.
Chloe hated Elena.
Not because she had taken Adrian,
but because she had been so quiet about her power.
Elena had played the long game,
waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Chloe reached for her phone and saw the news alerts.
Castillo Holdings Files for Bankruptcy.
Socialite Vanessa Castillo Divorced and Disinherited.
She felt a cold shiver go down her spine.
If the Castillos were broke,
there was no alimony for her.
No settlement for the "emotional distress" she was planning to claim.
She was just a pregnant woman with no job and a mounting pile of debt.
She picked up a cigarette,
then put it down,
remembering the baby.
“You better be a girl,” she whispered to her stomach.
“Because being a boy in this world is too much work if you don't have a name.”
She looked at the television,
where a reporter was talking about the "Salazar resurgence" in Europe.
There was a grainy photo of Elena walking through an airport in Barcelona.
She looked beautiful.
She looked powerful.
She looked like the woman Chloe would never be.
Chloe realized then that she had been a pawn in a game she didn't even understand.
Elena hadn't just defeated Adrian; she had wiped the board clean.
Chloe stood up and started to pack her bags.
She couldn't stay here.
The creditors would be looking for the jewelry Adrian had bought her with company money.
She needed to disappear before the law caught up with her.
She walked out of the motel room,
leaving behind the life she had tried so hard to steal.
The city lights were bright,
but they felt cold and distant.
She was just another girl with a dream that had turned into a nightmare.
And somewhere in Spain,
May you like
the woman she had tried to replace was sleeping in a palace,
guarded by the ghosts of a thousand years of wealth.
