Chapter 4 - THE SOCIAL FALLOUT
(Word count: ~1,510 words)
By 3:00 PM, the press release had swept through the financial wires and luxury news outlets like a wildfire.
PIERCE AERO CEO CAMDEN PIERCE TERMINATED FOR CAUSE FOLLOWING FORENSIC AUDIT. HEIRESS VIVIAN ALDEN PIERCE TAKES DIRECT CONTROL AS CEO; STOCK SURGES 24%.
While Camden’s corporate execution was underway, Lila Monroe was experiencing her own public reckoning.
At a high-end sushi restaurant in Madison Avenue, Lila sat at a corner table with her talent manager, Chloe, nervously scrolling through her phone.
“What do you mean my account is restricted?” Lila shrieked quietly, tapping her screen frantically. “My Instagram account has twelve brand sponsorship deals scheduled for this week!”
Chloe looked at Lila with a mixture of annoyance and horror. “Lila, do you have any idea who owns the talent agency representing you?”
Lila blinked. “It’s Apex Management Group.”
“And Apex Management Group is a subsidiary of Alden Meridian Holdings!” Chloe snapped, throwing her tablet onto the table. “Vivian Alden Pierce personally signed off on a morality clause breach thirty minutes ago! Every single contract you had—the beauty brands, the luxury shoe deals, the hamptons pop-up hosting fees—canceled! All of them!”
Lila’s face turned ghostly white. “She... she can’t do that!”
“She just did!” Chloe yelled back, keeping her voice low. “And it gets worse. The landlord of your Soho apartment building just sent an eviction notice. The apartment lease was registered under a corporate shell company managed by Pierce Aero. Since Camden was fired for cause, the corporate lease was terminated instantly. You have forty-eight hours to clear out.”
Lila’s hands began to shake violently. The life of effortless luxury she had boasted about on social media for seven months was crumbling into dust in a matter of hours.
“I’ll call Camden,” Lila whispered, pulling up his contact number. “He’ll take care of this. He has millions in private investments!”
She dialed his number. It rang four times before going straight to voicemail.
She dialed again. And again. On the fourth try, Camden finally picked up.
“Camden!” Lila sobbed into the phone. “Thank god! You need to fix this right now! Vivian’s lawyers canceled all my contracts and they’re kicking me out of the Soho apartment!”
“Shut up, Lila,” Camden’s voice came through the speaker, raspy, cold, and dripping with pure hatred.
Lila froze. “What?”
“I said shut your mouth!” Camden snarled, coughing loudly in what sounded like a cheap hotel room. “You stupid, arrogant little brat! You just had to wear her scarf! You just had to make that stupid comment at the hangar about carrying our bags!”
“You laughed at it!” Lila shrieked back, tears ruining her expensive mascara. “You laughed right along with me!”
“Because I was an idiot!” Camden yelled. “Do you know what she did to me? She fired me! She seized my shares! She froze my bank accounts! I am sitting in a Courtyard Marriott near Newark Airport with seventy-four dollars in cash because my cards are declined!”
Lila dropped her phone onto the table, her eyes wide with sheer horror.
“Seventy-four... dollars?” she whispered to herself.
“Don't ever call this number again,” Camden spat through the line before hanging up, the harsh tone of the disconnected line buzzing against the table.
Chloe picked up her handbag, standing up from the table. “I suggest you go home and start packing your bags, Lila. The agency is dropping you immediately to avoid being dragged into the Alden Meridian lawsuit.”
“Chloe, wait! You can’t leave me like this!” Lila begged, reaching out.
“Pay for your own lunch,” Chloe said coldly, walking out of the restaurant without looking back.
Lila sat alone at the table as the waiter walked over, placing a two-hundred-and-forty-dollar check on the leather tray.
She pulled out her black metal credit card—the one Camden had given her two months ago.
The waiter slid the card through the handheld terminal.
A high-pitched beep echoed through the quiet dining room.
DECLINED.
“Do you have another form of payment, ma'am?” the waiter asked politely, his expression shifting from warm hospitality to subtle suspicion.
May you like
Lila sat there, surrounded by the wealthy diners of Madison Avenue, her face burning with a shame so deep it felt like an open flame.
The woman who had asked Vivian Alden Pierce if she was there to carry her bags couldn't even pay for a sushi lunch.
