Chapter 7 7

The transformation took ten minutes.

Calleigh stood in the guest bathroom of the penthouse. She had shed Heinrich's shirt and put on the clothes Xavier brought. He had good taste, or rather, he knew exactly what "invisible" looked like.

It was a grey skirt suit, well-tailored but utterly boring. The fabric was matte, absorbing light rather than reflecting it.

She pulled her hair back into a severe, low bun, securing it with plain pins. Then, she put on the glasses. Thick black frames with non-prescription lenses.

She looked in the mirror. The glamorous, vulnerable woman from the night before was gone. In her place stood Calleigh Holman, the quiet, nerdy data analyst.

She walked downstairs. A silver Audi A6 was waiting-not the Maybach. Heinrich allowed her this one concession: a low-profile car for work.

Ms. Kim, the driver, nodded as Calleigh got in. You look pale, ma'am. Water?

Calleigh took the bottle and nodded thanks.

As the car merged into the morning gridlock, Calleigh pulled out her work phone. It was buzzing incessantly.

She opened the group chat for Orange Media.

Chloe: OMG! Did you guys see this??

Viper: The Ice King has a heart? Or just a libido?

Tank: Link is dead. Anyone save the pic?

Chloe: [Image Attached]

It was a blurry screenshot, taken before the scrub. It showed Heinrich carrying a woman. You couldn't see her face, just her back, her dark hair, and...

Her shoes.

Calleigh looked at the photo. The woman was wearing a pair of simple, black pumps-the kind of unremarkable footwear Gerri had insisted she wear, a detail that now, ironically, made her blend in with a thousand other women.

She looked down at her own feet. She was wearing sensible black flats.

Viper: Look at those legs. Definitely a model. Maybe a VS Angel.

Tank: Or a European princess. That's old money posture.

Calleigh almost laughed. They were projecting their fantasies onto a blurry silhouette. No one suspected the mute girl in the corner cubicle.

The car passed through Times Square. The massive NASDAQ screen was flashing.

LLOYD GROUP SHARES DIP 1.5% AMIDST CEO SCANDAL RUMORS.

There was Heinrich's face, stern and unyielding, next to a downward red arrow.

Calleigh stared at the screen. Her mind shifted gears. 1.5%. That was significant.

She did the math in her head. She had shorted the stock through a shell company in the Cayman Islands two days ago, anticipating the bad press from the surrogacy rumors she knew Gerri would eventually leak.

But this... this scandal was even better.

She tapped her knee. If she leveraged this dip to buy back in through a different shell, she could ride the recovery when Heinrich announced the quarterly earnings next week.

Stop here, she signed to Ms. Kim as they approached the block before her office.

She never let the car pull up to the front door. An analyst on a $60k salary didn't get dropped off by a chauffeur.

She got out, blending instantly into the stream of commuters. She bought a coffee from a street cart-burnt, watery, and perfect for her cover.

She walked into the lobby of the Orange Media building. She swiped her badge.

Beep.

The security guard, Earl, barely looked up from his newspaper. Morning, he grunted.

Calleigh nodded and hurried past.

She stepped into the elevator. It was packed. Two women from HR were whispering behind her.

I heard he carried her out like a sack of potatoes, one said. So romantic.

Romantic? The other scoffed. It looked possessive. Like a caveman. I'd let him drag me to a cave, though.

Calleigh stood in the corner, staring at her shoes. She wanted to scream. It's not romantic. It's a cage.

The elevator dinged at the 14th floor.

Calleigh took a deep breath, adjusted her glasses, and stepped out into the open-plan office.

Showtime.