Chapter 6

Colette strode forward, her red-soled heels clicking aggressively on the stone plaza. She stopped in front of Gwendolyn, looking her up and down as if she were a piece of trash that had washed up on her private beach.

"Fifty-seven thousand dollars?" Colette sneered, a cruel smile playing on her lips. "Is that a lot of money to you? How sad. Poor people are always so loud about their little problems."

She opened her Hermès bag and pulled out a checkbook from a private JP Morgan bank. With a dramatic flourish, she uncapped a gold fountain pen and scribbled on a blank check.

She tore it out and held it up. Then, as if it were a piece of garbage, she let it flutter from her fingers. It landed by the toe of Gwendolyn's worn-out canvas sneaker.

The amount was clearly visible: $60,000.

"There," Colette said, her voice dripping with condescension. "The extra is for your therapy. Now take your money and get out of our lives."

Jordi looked relieved. The crowd was silent, watching to see what Gwendolyn would do. This was the ultimate power play, a public humiliation delivered by check.

Gwendolyn's face was a mask of calm. She didn't cry. She didn't yell. She simply bent down and picked up the check.

At that exact moment, a sharp, distinct notification sound chimed from her phone. It was the specific alert from her Chase banking app for a large incoming wire transfer.

She frowned, pulling the phone from her pocket. A banner notification was displayed across the screen. Her eyes widened.

"You have received a private wire transfer. Amount: $100,000.00 USD."

She blinked, thinking it was a mistake, a scam. She tapped the notification. The transaction was real. In the memo line, there was a single letter: -D.

Her heart did a frantic, painful somersault in her chest. The escort? One hundred thousand dollars? Was this his fee from the rich Pacheco woman? Did he send it to her by mistake?

It didn't matter. In that moment, the money in her account was a shield. It was armor. It was power.

She looked up at Colette's smug face and a slow, genuine smile spread across her own. She laughed.

Holding the sixty-thousand-dollar check in both hands, she looked Colette directly in the eye.

Riiiiip.

She tore the check in half.

A collective gasp rippled through the crowd. Colette's jaw dropped.

Gwendolyn tore the two halves into quarters, then eighths, until the check was nothing but a pile of confetti in her hands. She opened her palms and let the pieces scatter in the wind.

"Are you insane?" Colette shrieked. "That was sixty thousand dollars!"

Gwendolyn held up her phone, turning the screen so Colette and Jordi could see the bank notification. The six figures, with the two zeros after the decimal point, glowed in the afternoon sun. Jordi's face went white.

"My pocket money," Gwendolyn said, her voice dangerously soft, "is more than your charity."

She looked at Jordi, her eyes cold as stone. "I still want my fifty-seven thousand. From you. I don't want her dirty money. You have twenty-three hours left."

Without another word, she turned and walked away. The crowd parted for her like she was royalty.

Miles away, in his office high above the city, Damian Pacheco listened to a live audio feed from his security detail on campus. He heard the rip of the check. He heard Gwendolyn's cold, confident words.

And he leaned back in his leather chair and smiled.