Chapter 3

Clara's POV

I post one last warning in the chat: [@Ashley, I'm saying this one final time. Cresthaven does not accept guests without a reservation. If you show up anyway, you're responsible for any legal and financial consequences that follow.]

Less than a minute after it sends, the chat floods with Ashley's replies.

[Oh please, Clara's still playing tough. Ignore her, everyone, she just can't stand to see us have a good time. My cousin actually knows someone who works there. It's already handled.]

More replies pile up underneath, agreeing with her, laughing along.

I turn my phone off completely.

Good advice is wasted on people determined to destroy themselves. If they want to run headfirst into a wall, I'll let them.

Over the next few days, I stay away from the club, sticking to my usual routine of classes and the library.

Saturday morning, I don't have class, so I'm in my dorm going over a report on next quarter's ingredient suppliers for Cresthaven.

At ten thirty, my phone starts buzzing on the desk. The caller ID says Walter, Cresthaven's general manager.

Walter came up working alongside my grandfather, and he's about the most level-headed person I know. If he's calling me at this hour, something's wrong.

I pick up, and his voice comes through, tight with barely controlled anger. "Clara, we've got a situation at the hotel."

"Slow down. What happened?" I close my laptop.

"Around ten this morning, two charter buses pulled up and forty or fifty college students got off. Security stopped them at the gate, but the girl leading the group claimed she was your friend, said you personally arranged a free retreat for them, and gave your full name."

My jaw tightens. Ashley actually had the nerve to go through with it.

"Security turned them away like protocol requires, and that same girl started riling everyone up, accusing us of thinking we're too good for our own customers. The whole group shoved past security and forced their way onto the property." Walter's words come faster now. "The second they got in, they scattered everywhere, taking photos, yelling. A few of them made it into the kitchen and wrecked the Australian lobster and the Wagyu that just came in this morning."

"Where was security? Why wasn't anyone removed?" My voice goes cold.

"Clara, they're college kids. Security didn't want to risk hurting anyone and blowing up online, so they mostly just tried to hold the line. But that's not the worst part. A few of them made it to the koi pond out back. They wanted photos with the fish, so they pushed over the marble railing along the edge, and it went straight into the water. Several of the purebred koi didn't make it."

My hand tightens around the phone.

Those koi came from a breeder in Japan, hand-picked one by one by my grandfather himself. He treasured every one of them. Even the cheapest fish in that pond cost more than a car.

"There's more." Walter's voice drops lower. "They were chasing each other down the hallway on the first floor and slammed into the door of Mr. Vale's private dining room. The door flew open, right as he was hosting board members from an international firm, and one of the students, still holding a soda, spilled it straight onto his suit."

Sebastian Vale is Cresthaven's top black-card member, a name that carries serious weight in old-money circles on the East Coast. Ruthless when he needs to be. Even my grandfather used to tread carefully around him.

Ashley and her crew didn't just wreck my property. They dragged someone into this who should have never been touched.

"Walter." I take a breath, keeping my voice level. "Save everything. Call the police right now. Trespassing, property destruction, all of it. I'm on my way."

I hang up, grab my keys, and head straight out of my dorm.

They had every chance to walk away clean, and they ran straight into hell instead.

Ashley, today you're getting a lesson you won't forget.

Thirty minutes later, I pull up outside Cresthaven. Three police cars are already parked out front, lights flashing.

I get out and walk straight toward the lobby, my face giving nothing away.

The second I step inside, the chaos hits me. Muddy footprints track across floors that are usually spotless, drinks spilled everywhere. The air reeks of alcohol and perfume.

In the middle of the lobby, dozens of club members crouch split into two groups, guys on one side, girls on the other, watched over by police. Every face is some mix of scared and shaken.

Ashley and Tyler stand at the front, being questioned hard by two officers.

"Officer, you have this all wrong! We weren't here to cause trouble!" Ashley's makeup is a mess from crying. She points at Walter and raises her voice. "This hotel belongs to our friend Clara's family! She's the one who said we could come here for free! It's these security guards and the manager, they wouldn't let us in, and that's the only reason things got broken!"

Tyler jumps in to back her up. "Exactly! We're customers here, we're Clara's classmates. What gives you the right to detain us? We want to talk to Clara!"

"You're not going to get that chance."

I push through the crowd, one step at a time, until I'm standing right in front of everyone.

Every head turns to me at once.

"Clara!" Ashley's face lights up at the sight of me. She tries to rush toward me, but an officer holds her back.

She shouts past him. "You're finally here! Tell them what's going on! Get your staff under control, they wouldn't even let us in and now they've got the police arresting us! Fire every last one of them!"

Tyler frowns at me too. "Clara, this joke's gone way too far. Get the police to drop this, and get us some rooms. Everyone's shaken up. You owe us an explanation."