Chapter 5: The Final Plea
Whitney arrived at the hotel lobby, desperate and disheveled. She had spent the last forty-eight hours trying to call friends who now refused to answer, trying to find a lawyer who would take her case. She was broke. She was a pariah. She managed to slip past the lobby security, finding her way to the floor where Nora was staying.
She saw Nora walking down the hall, escorted by two of Silas’s guards. Whitney lunged, grabbing Nora’s arm. "You! You did this! You ruined us over a glass of wine!"
Nora didn't flinch. She looked at Whitney—the woman who had mocked her mother’s medicine—with a quiet, piercing pity. "I didn't ruin you, Whitney. You ruined yourself. You thought you were big because you could make others feel small. I only held up the mirror."
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Silas appeared at the end of the hallway. He didn't yell. He didn't threaten. He simply stood there, and Whitney’s resolve shattered. She fell to her knees, sobbing—not because she was sorry, but because she had lost the only game she knew how to play: the game of power.
"Get her out," Silas said, his voice flat. It was the end of the Whitmores.
