“You threw your life on the line for a stranger,” Nathaniel said, stepping closer. The faint scent of cedarwood, expensive tobacco, and clean rain drifted from his coat. “You held my mother by the hem of her gown while eighty floors of empty air threatened to swallow you whole. What you did has no monetary equivalent, Miss Jenkins. But I do not remain in anyone’s debt.”
“It wasn’t a transaction!” Rose protested, a sudden flare of pride cutting through her shock. She looked Nathaniel straight in the eye, refusing to be treated like an invoice waiting to be stamped paid. “I didn’t save your mother because I wanted a reward, Mr. Callaway. I did it because she was a human being in danger. I’m grateful for your help with Leo—God knows I’ve prayed every night for a way to pay for his therapy—but I am not an opportunistic leech.”
Eleanor let out a delighted, ringing laugh from her armchair. “Oh, I like her, Nathaniel. She has teeth! Unlike that spineless, scheming socialite you almost bound our family to.”
At the mention of Victoria, the air in the room instantly chilled.
Nathaniel’s jaw hardened. He placed the folder on the nightstand. “Speaking of Victoria. Arthur Sterling posted her bail twenty minutes ago. A judge with deep ties to the Sterling family dismissed the initial attempted murder charge, citing ‘lack of conclusive physical evidence’ and reducing it to reckless endangerment.”
Eleanor’s smile vanished, replaced by an icy, aristocratic fury. “Arthur bought the magistrate. Predictable.”
“It gets worse,” Nathaniel said, pulling out a slim silver tablet from his inner pocket and tapping the screen. He turned it toward Eleanor and Rose.
On the screen was a viral video currently dominating every major social media platform. It was an edited clip from the rooftop, filmed from an angle that made it appear as though Rose had rushed forward and bumped violently into Eleanor, causing her to tumble over the glass railing. Victoria was shown extending her arms, seemingly in a desperate attempt to catch the matriarch, before collapsing in tears.
The headline blared across the screen in screaming yellow font:
**ROOFTOP WEDDING SABOTAGE: DISGRUNTLED CATERING MAID ATTACKS CALLAWAY MATRIARCH IN FAILED HEIST EXTORTION! BRIDE HEROICALLY INTERVENES!**
Rose felt the blood drain entirely from her face. Her stomach twisted into a violent knot. “What… what is this? That’s not what happened! I was thirty feet away when she fell! I dropped my tray to run to her!”
“The Sterling PR machine has been working all night,” Nathaniel said, his eyes burning with a dangerous, lethal dark light. “They leaked this footage to every tabloid and gossip blog in the country. Victoria is currently giving an exclusive press conference from the steps of the Sterling Plaza, painting herself as the grieving, traumatized bride whose wedding was destroyed by a deranged, jealous server.”
“They’re framing me,” Rose whispered, her voice trembling as the sheer magnitude of the Sterling family’s power hit her like a physical blow. “I’m just a maid. Nobody is going to believe me over Senator Sterling’s daughter.”
“I believe you,” Eleanor said fiercely, rising from her chair and walking over to the bed, placing her good hand over Rose’s bandaged fingers. “And more importantly, the Callaway family believes you.”
Nathaniel leaned over the edge of the bed, his face inches from Rose’s. The raw power emanating from him was terrifying, yet somehow completely protective.
“They want a war through the media, Miss Jenkins,” Nathaniel said coldly. “They think they can crush you because you have no name, no fortune, and no pedigree. But they forgot one thing.”
Rose looked up into his dark, fathomless eyes. “What?”
“They forgot that you belong under Callaway protection now,” Nathaniel said. “Starting today, you are not returning to your apartment. You are not speaking to the press. You will stay here, in this penthouse, as my mother’s personal companion and honored guest.”
“Mr. Callaway, I can’t live here—!”
“You can, and you will,” Nathaniel countered without room for debate. “Because the moment you step outside those gates alone, the Sterlings will have you arrested, silenced, or worse. Arthur Sterling is a desperate man whose empire is crumbling. He needed my capital to survive, and now that the marriage is void, he will do anything to cover his daughter’s crime.”
He straightened up, buttoning his suit jacket with crisp, decisive movements.
“Rest today, Rose,” Nathaniel said, using her first name for the first time. The sound of it on his deep voice sent a strange, electric shiver through her spine. “Tomorrow, we go on the offensive. And I promise you—before this is over, Victoria Sterling will beg for your mercy on her knees.”
***
