Bait for a Gentleman novel Chapter 20

Audrina actually sat face-to-face with the man himself?!

Every single person within earshot stopped breathing, desperately trying to listen.

"What... what did he say?" Claire asked, her voice cracking drily.

Audrina answered effortlessly, "Mr. Hawthorne and I locked in an exclusive interview for next Tuesday evening at the Everest Law Group offices. I walked him through the general outline, and he approved it without a single revision. His assistant, Layne, will be handling all the direct coordination with us starting Monday."

She casually dropped her designer bag onto her desk. "You said Mr. Ladd wanted to see me? I'll go give him the briefing right now."

Without giving Claire a fraction of a second to respond, Audrina turned and walked gracefully toward Roland's office.

Claire stood glued to the floor, all the color violently draining from her face.

Unable to contain herself, Jenny whispered frantically, "Claire... did she seriously just pull that off?"

Claire couldn't speak.

The rest of the office exchanged wildly complicated looks, their ears straining to catch whatever was happening inside Roland's office.

Intermittent bursts of effusive praise and roaring laughter echoed through the door.

Minutes later, Audrina strolled out of Roland's office, looking completely unfazed.

As she passed Claire's desk, she paused and turned her head.

Claire was aggressively shuffling through a stack of useless paperwork, pretending to be utterly consumed by her work. But Audrina didn't miss the way her knuckles had turned entirely white around the pen she was gripping.

"Ms. Corbett." Audrina's voice was polite but firm. "Could I have a private word with you?"

Claire snapped her head up, forcing a terrifyingly rigid smile. "Of course. What is it?"

The two women walked to the end of the corridor, slipping into the dim quiet of the emergency stairwell.

Audrina didn't waste time. "Ms. Corbett, thank you so much for the opportunity."

Claire blinked, entirely thrown off guard. "What opportunity?"

Claire's eyes locked onto the ring. Her lips parted, but absolutely no sound came out.

Audrina smoothly lowered her hand. "Ms. Corbett, we're professionals. There is absolutely no reason for things to be this hostile between us. I came to this network with my own career path mapped out. You and I are going to be sitting next to each other on camera every single night. If you try to trip me up or pull a stunt like this ever again—"

"I won't even need to bother Mr. Ladd. I have the power to ruin your career permanently. Do you believe me?"

Claire's jaw trembled. She desperately wanted to fire back, but an overwhelming, paralyzing terror had gripped her throat.

Staring at Audrina, she violently realized that she hadn't understood a single thing about the woman standing in front of her.

Yesterday, she had smugly pegged Audrina as a pretty, naive rookie with zero connections—the perfect sacrificial lamb to throw under the bus. But Audrina had just effortlessly booked Sebastian. And on her finger sat a custom-designed, multi-million dollar masterpiece from a global luxury house that she had only ever drooled over in magazines. The ring alone was worth more than a luxury condo in Kingshire.

All the blood rushed from Claire's face. She instinctively staggered back half a step, completely rendered speechless.

Audrina gave her one last, dismissive glance, turned on her heel, and walked out the door.

Claire stood totally alone in the stairwell. The motion-sensor lights clicked off, plunging her into pitch black. She dug her nails violently into her palms, too utterly terrified to follow her out.