The silence in the showroom was absolute. The Ferrari keys Tiffany had just hurled still lay on the polished marble, the metallic clatter echoing in everyone’s ears.
Tiffany’s arrogant smirk melted into pure, suffocating dread. Her eyes darted wildly between the bowing, hyperventilating manager and the elderly woman in the simple cream suit.
“O-own?” Tiffany stammered, her voice dropping to a pathetic squeak. “I thought you were…”
“A nobody?” Mrs. Hayes supplied, her tone as smooth and cold as ice. She didn’t even look at the trembling saleswoman. Instead, she kept her gaze locked on the manager. “Mr. Vance. Is this the standard of hospitality at Hayes Auto Group?”
“No, Mrs. Hayes! I swear, she’s terminated! Security is already on the way!” Vance pleaded, nervously wringing his hands.
Panic set in. Tiffany lunged forward, tears instantly ruining her mascara. “Please! I was having a bad day! I didn’t know who you were!”
“Character is how you treat those you think are beneath you,” Mrs. Hayes replied calmly. She slowly bent down, retrieved the keys from the floor, and ran her thumb over the emblem. She turned back to the cherry-red sports car.
“You explicitly told me not to touch *your* car,” Mrs. Hayes mused. “Mr. Vance, draw up the paperwork for this vehicle immediately.”
Tiffany exhaled a shaky breath, a spark of delusional hope flashing in her eyes. “Yes! Excellent choice, ma’am, I can process that—”
“Oh, it’s not for me,” Mrs. Hayes interrupted, her eyes locking onto Tiffany with diamond-hard authority. “Put it in Tiffany’s name.”
The showroom gasped. Tiffany blinked in bewildered shock.
“Since you claimed it as yours, you just bought it,” Mrs. Hayes said with a razor-sharp smile. “Full MSRP. Half a million dollars. Mr. Vance, deduct it from her commissions and void her severance. If she’s short, our legal team will seize her assets by dawn.”
Mrs. Hayes dropped the keys into Tiffany’s paralyzed hands. “Enjoy your ride home.”