Chapter 8 - The Queen’s Exit
The heavy downdraft from the restarting helicopter engines whipped the white canopy violently against its aluminum poles, sending streamers and banners flying into the Ohio sky. The crowd scrambled backward, shielding their faces from the dust and grass kicked up by the spinning blades.
Selena stood frozen in the middle of the chaos, her expensive dress ruined, her hair wild, watching her carefully constructed social dominance get blown away like cheap confetti. Derek was on his phone, furiously calling his accountant, his face pale as chalk.
Mara walked backward up the metal stairs of the aircraft, never taking her eyes off the pathetic little group of former bullies. At the top landing, she raised her hand in a slow, polite two-finger salute—the exact gesture of dismissal a CEO gives to middle management before closing a door.
She stepped inside the cabin, and the heavy pneumatic door sealed shut with a solid, satisfying thud.
Inside the cockpit, the pilot gave her a thumbs-up. “All set, Ms. Bennett?”
May you like
“Let’s go,” Mara said, fastening her safety harness. “We have an acquisition meeting in Chicago tonight.”
With a sudden surge of turbine power, the helicopter lifted gracefully off the Cedar Ridge football field, rising steadily above the maple trees, above the rusted bleachers, and far above the petty little town that had tried to keep her small. Down below, two hundred people watched her disappear into the bright summer sky, realizing too late that some giants can never be caged by high school hallways.
