Early Morning:-
City Nightclub:-
The first rays of dawn crept through the gaps in the heavy curtains, casting a dim glow over the private lounge of club. The air still carried the remnants of alcohol, cigarette smoke, and a faint trace of spilled perfume.
On the plush leather sofa, Riley stirred from her drunken sleep, her head pounding like a drum. As expected, after an entire night spent passed out in the bar, she had woken up with a fever.
Two bar staff, sent by Lane to check on her, hovered over her with concerned expressions. One of them hesitantly placed a hand on her forehead, immediately frowning.
“Riley, you’re burning up! Your forehead is so hot.”
The second staff member reached out to confirm and gasped. “This is bad. You’re definitely running a fever. You should go to the hospital. I’ll let Lane know you need the day off.”
Riley groggily sat up, her long hair a tangled mess. Her vision swam, and her head felt like it was about to split open. She blinked dazedly at her colleagues, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Is it… morning already?”
“Of course it is. What happened last night? Did you drink with the boss?” One of the staff glanced around the room, their gaze landing on a small puddle of vomit not far from the sofa.
Drink? Oh… right. She had been drinking. Or at least, she had taken a sip… No, maybe it was a full glass?
Her muddled mind struggled to piece together the details, but everything was a blur. She shook her head slightly, trying to clear her thoughts. “I think… I only had one sip. No… maybe a glass?”
Her colleague gave her a skeptical look, eyes flicking between Riley, who reeked of alcohol, and the clear evidence of her overindulgence. Their lips twitched.
“One glass? Riley, come on… Just look at yourself.”
The second staff member sighed, their tone carrying a hint of something else. “Listen, I get it. When the boss calls you to drink, you don’t really have a choice. But still, you shouldn’t push yourself like this. It’s not safe.”
A complicated expression crossed their face as they scanned the disheveled state of the lounge. The upturned glasses, the lingering scent of expensive liquor, and the young woman who, despite her fever, still looked stunningly beautiful.
Sometimes, just being pretty was a kind of power. Getting called in to drink with the boss… and ending up in this state? It was clear she had seized an opportunity, whether she realized it or not.
“Anyway, you should go to the hospital. You don’t look good.” Their words barely registered in Riley’s mind, but at the mention of hospital, a surge of clarity hit her.
Right. Grandma.
Her feverish haze lifted slightly as she remembered, her grandmother was still in the hospital, waiting for her. She had no time to be sick.
She needed to go. Now.
Riley slapped her own smooth cheeks forcefully, trying to shake off the discomfort of her hangover. The sharp sting helped clear her mind, at least a little, but the pounding headache remained.
Seeing this, one of the bar staff couldn’t hold back her curiosity. “Riley, what exactly happened between you and the boss last night?”
Another staff member leaned in, eyes gleaming with gossip. “Yeah, spill! The boss is so tall, so handsome, and his body is amazing. It must’ve felt incredible, right?”
“You… What are you talking about?” Riley’s eyes widened in pure confusion. Her expression was completely blank.
The first staff member gave her a knowing look and sighed. “You probably drank too much and don’t remember a thing.” She sounded certain, after all, she had experience in these matters.
“The boss is such a scumbag,” the other staff member muttered, clenching her teeth. “. You dont know what he did with a girl named Rose who was his girlfriend, and his step-sister and his step-mother… they are all in prison. He would have just pulled up his pants and left? Didn’t even bother to cover you with a blanket?”
Riley’s mind went blank.
For a moment, she couldn’t process their words. But then, boom. Her thoughts exploded into chaos.
She wasn’t stupid. At first, she hadn’t considered anything like that, but her colleagues’ words were way too explicit. Way too direct.
No way…
Her heart pounded wildly as she tried to recall what had happened the night before. The details were hazy, too hazy. She could vaguely remember the boss saying he had a way to save her grandmother, that he was willing to spend millions out of his own pocket to hire a top specialist to treat her.
She had been so overwhelmed with emotions that she toasted him with a drink. Just one glass. But after that nothing. Her head throbbed painfully. Her body ached. She felt weak and uncomfortable all over.
‘Did… something really happen?’ Her stomach twisted into knots. This was bad. She felt like crying. ‘Her first time… in a bar’s private lounge? Just like that?’
Drinking was a mistake. She should never have tried to keep up.
Riley had no idea how she left Nightclub, or how she arrived at the hospital. Her mind was completely clouded the entire way.
But when she saw her grandmother lying in the hospital bed, all her messy emotions were forcefully pushed aside.
She took a deep breath, straightened her back, and forced a bright smile onto her face. No matter what, she couldn’t let her grandmother see that anything was wrong.
….
“That idiot Eric Vaughn really said that?” Alex’s voice rose a few octaves, his expression one of disbelief.
No wonder he’d woken up to a massive surge of emotional breakdown reports from Eric Vaughn. Turns out, the fool had let his mouth run faster than his brain and ended up digging his own grave.
Mr. Waters, standing at attention, gave a curt nod. “It was my oversight.”
To ensure that the decline of the Kleinberg Family previous Head health seemed completely natural, he had been meticulous, leaving no traces, making sure the autopsy report matched expectations. Everything had been clean.