Chapter 6 - The Eviction of Paige Holloway: From Viral Fame to the Cold Boston Asphalt
The digital footprint of Paige Holloway was being erased from the internet with the surgical precision of a military operation.
While Travis was learning the true definition of bankruptcy on the South Boston piers, Paige was sitting on her expensive Louis Vuitton luggage outside the locked glass doors of our former Commonwealth Avenue apartment.
Her phone screen flickered frantically, displaying an endless stream of error notifications, frozen applications, and vanished follower counts.
“What do you mean, account suspended? This is a verified creator profile!” Paige screamed into the speaker of her backup phone, her voice cracking with rising hysteria as customer support lines disconnected automatically.
Passersby on the rainy sidewalk glanced at her designer bags and her tear-streaked face with a mixture of indifference and mild amusement, stepping around her as if she were a piece of discarded trash.
The heavy glass doors behind her clicked audibly as the building superintendent, a burly man named Dennis who had once smiled warmly at her demands, walked out holding a cardboard box filled with her remaining vanity products.
“Here’s your stuff, Miss Holloway,” Dennis said flatly, dumping the box onto the wet pavement beside her luggage without an ounce of his former politeness.
“You can’t do this! Do you know who I am? I’m dating Travis Mercer, a senior mortgage executive!” Paige shrieked, standing up to confront him while her expensive faux-fur coat dragged in the mud.
“Mr. Mercer doesn’t live here anymore, and neither do you,” Dennis replied coldly, crossing his arms over his chest. “The master lease was terminated by Vale Global Holdings an hour ago. Furthermore, the property management company has filed a lien against your personal assets for unpaid commercial damages.”
Paige’s jaw dropped, her mouth working silently as the terrifying realization began to sink in.
“Vale… Global…?” she stammered, the name echoing in her memory from the whispered rumors she had heard in high-end circles but always dismissed as urban legends. “That’s… that’s impossible. Evie was just a quiet girl who worked at a bookstore before she met Travis.”
“Evie was wearing a four-pointed sapphire star when you helped throw her into the street last night,” a smooth, chilling voice interrupted from behind them.
Paige whirled around, her breath catching in her throat as Graham Pierce stepped out from the idling black sedan parked illegally at the curb.
He didn’t wear a badge, but the bespoke charcoal coat and the absolute authority in his stride commanded immediate, suffocating terror.
“Who are you?” Paige asked, backing away until her knees hit her Louis Vuitton suitcase.
“I am the man who cleans up after careless people,” Graham said quietly, stopping two feet away from her scattered belongings. “You enjoyed filming Miss Vale’s humiliation, Miss Holloway. You found her heartbreak entertaining enough to broadcast to forty thousand strangers.”
“It was just a joke! It was social media content!” Paige cried out, her manicured hands trembling as she clutched her phone to her chest like a shield.
“Your social media career is currently experiencing a permanent server wipe,” Graham informed her casually, pulling a sleek black tablet from his coat pocket and tapping the screen once.
At that exact second, Paige’s backup phone buzzed violently in her hand.
She looked down at the screen, watching in absolute horror as her Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube accounts simultaneously vanished into thin air, replaced by a single error message: ACCOUNT TERMINATED PERMANENTLY DUE TO VIOLATION OF FEDERALLY REGULATED ASSET EXCLUSION LAWS.
“No… no, my brand deals! My sponsorships! I have twenty thousand dollars pending in my payout balance!” Paige shrieked, dropping to her knees in the wet street as her digital life disintegrated before her eyes.
“Your bank accounts, your credit cards, and your personal lines of credit have been frozen under suspicion of receiving funds from illegally laundered Mercer corporate accounts,” Graham stated, his voice devoid of any human empathy. “You are legally broke, Miss Holloway. And more importantly, you are entirely alone.”
Before Paige could answer, two local police cruisers pulled up behind Graham’s sedan, their blue and red lights flashing silently against the brownstone brick walls.
Two uniformed officers stepped out, walking directly toward Paige with stern expressions.
“Paige Holloway?” the lead officer asked, holding out a standard warrant document. “You are being detained for questioning regarding your complicity in an unregistered financial conspiracy and reckless endangerment resulting in bodily harm.”
“Detained? For what? I didn’t do anything! Travis pushed her, not me!” Paige screamed, thrashing wildly as the officer grabbed her wrists and pulled her arms behind her back with mechanical efficiency.
“You filmed it, you encouraged it, and you stood by while a pregnant woman was shoved into oncoming traffic,” Graham said, turning his back on her as she was shoved roughly into the rear of the police cruiser. “Welcome to the real world, Miss Holloway. It lacks a filter.”
As the police cruiser pulled away from the curb, carrying Paige toward a holding cell where her beauty and her followers couldn’t save her, Graham tapped his earpiece.
“Target two is secured and processed, Boss,” Graham reported quietly into the encrypted channel.
Inside the Vale Global penthouse atop the city, Adrian Vale listened to the report, his gaze fixed on the skyline where the sun was beginning to dip below the horizon, casting a deep, blood-red glow over Boston.
“And Colleen Mercer?” Adrian asked, his voice low and steady.
May you like
“She is currently packing what little she has left in her suburban home before the foreclosure auction tomorrow morning,” Graham replied from the street below. “Shall we conclude the family lesson, sir?”
“Not yet,” Adrian replied, a faint, razor-sharp smile touching his lips. “Let her keep one single item so she understands the depth of her defeat. Then bring her to the estate.”
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