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The cold bit harder than Ellie had ever felt. It reached through her thin lavender sweater like tiny needles, sinking straight into her bones. She didn’t cry anymore. The tears had frozen on her cheeks, turning into stiff tracks of ice that pulled at her skin every time she blinked. / Chapter 5 / 10

Chapter 5 - The Corporate WarzoneWithin twenty minutes, Grant’s black Mercedes was parked directly in front of the management office of Pinerest Lodge.

The motel manager, a stout man named Gary with sweat gleaming on his forehead, hurried out of the glass door holding a clipboard. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Grant step out of the driver's seat, his face a mask of cold fury.

"Mr. Mercer! Sir! I didn't know you were inspecting today—" Gary started, offering a nervous, greasy smile.

Grant didn't let him finish. He grabbed Gary by the collar of his polyester shirt and slammed him against the brick wall beside the ice machine. The clipboard clattered loudly onto the frozen pavement.

"Mr. Mercer! What—what are you doing?!" Gary gasped, his eyes wide with terror.

"Where is Michael Delaney?" Grant demanded, his voice dangerously low, vibrating with an intensity that made the manager’s knees buckle.

"I—I told him to leave! He was squatting! Three weeks behind!"

"He hung the drywall in the east wing last month," Grant snarled, pressing his forearm against Gary’s chest. "Did you pay him?"

"We... we don't pay unauthorized independent contractors cash on-site! Accounting processes invoices in thirty days! It’s company policy!"

"Company policy?" Grant laughed, a dark, humorless sound. "My company policy is that we do not steal from working men. My company policy is that we do not throw children out into the snow!"

Grant shoved Gary hard, sending him stumbling backward over a snowbank.

"Pack your desk," Grant ordered, pointing a finger straight at the manager's nose. "You’re fired for gross misconduct, theft of wages, and extreme negligence. Security will escort you off the property in five minutes. If you take a single paper clip that doesn't belong to you, I will make sure you never work in real estate again."

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Gary opened his mouth to argue, took one look at Grant’s eyes, and bolted back inside the office.

Grant turned around. Ellie was standing by the passenger door of the Mercedes, wrapped in his heavy coat, watching him with wide, solemn eyes.

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