CHAPTER 4 – SIENNA’S FALL BEGINS
By the third day, Sienna’s world started shrinking.
Clients stopped replying.
Calls went unanswered.
Her agency meetings were “rescheduled indefinitely.”
Then came the message:
“You are no longer attached to premium listings.”
No explanation.
Just removal.
At a café in Pacific Heights, she met Daniel—her former mentor.
He didn’t look at her the same way anymore.
“You crossed someone important,” he said.
“I don’t even know who he is.”
Daniel laughed softly.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“You thought you did.”
Sienna’s grip tightened on her cup.
“This is about the Bellwether guy, isn’t it?”
Daniel didn’t answer immediately.
Then:
“Do you know what people like him do when they’re bored?”
Her silence was the answer.
“They don’t date,” he continued. “They evaluate.”
That word stuck.
Evaluate.
Sienna left the café shaken—but not defeated.
Because she still believed there was a version of this story where she could fix it.
That night, she searched again for Grant Vale.
And this time—
She found a fragment.
A single archived article.
Old.
Nearly erased.
A financial collapse.
A disappearance.
And one line buried at the bottom:
“The Vale Group was believed to have been absorbed into a private holding structure that does not disclose ownership.”
Sienna stared at the screen.
For the first time—
May you like
Fear didn’t feel like embarrassment.
It felt like scale.
