Chapter 7 - The Desperate Ploy
Desperation can drive entitled people to commit truly incredibly stupid acts.
Chloe knew her father was facing complete financial ruin and potential jail time.
In her twisted, privileged mind, she believed that if she could just ruin the guard who started this, Julian might somehow forgive her.
She formulated a toxic, reckless plan to frame Elias for theft.
Before being escorted off the premises, Chloe slipped away from her security detail under the guise of using the restroom.
She crept into the employee locker room, a place she considered entirely filthy and beneath her.
She had stolen a ridiculously expensive diamond watch from her own father's suitcase earlier.
Her plan was simple: plant the watch in Elias's locker, report it stolen to the police, and watch the heroic guard go down in flames.
She found the locker marked with Elias's name tag and quickly picked the cheap combination lock with a hairpin.
Her heart hammered wildly in her chest as she slipped the glittering timepiece deep into the pocket of his spare uniform jacket.
"Let's see Julian Sterling defend a common thief," Chloe muttered to herself with a wicked, triumphant smirk.
She clicked the padlock shut and hurried out of the locker room, feeling incredibly proud of her own cunning.
Ten minutes later, she marched up to the front desk, wiping fake tears from her heavily made-up eyes.
"I need to call the police immediately!" she cried loudly.
"That aggressive security guard, Elias, he stole my father's fifty-thousand-dollar watch during the scuffle!"
The lobby manager looked at her with a mixture of extreme skepticism and complete exhaustion.
But standard hotel policy dictated that theft accusations involving high-value items had to be formally investigated.
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Chloe smiled inwardly, anticipating the glorious moment when Elias would be dragged out in handcuffs.
She was completely oblivious to the small, blinking red light hidden in the smoke detector above Elias's locker.
