“No.”
Regina smiled.
“Good.”
Elena laughed.
“You’re weird.”
“They’ll remember the forty minutes.”
The next day, the mother returned.
She bought a necklace.
Not because anyone pressured her.
Because she wanted it.
That mattered.
Regina’s team traced the sabotage carefully.
A private investigator found connections between Meredith and Andrew.
Several fake reviews linked back to marketing contractors Andrew had used previously.
A former assistant provided emails.
The package itself eventually yielded useful courier footage.
Police handled the threatening note separately.
Caldwell’s attorneys handled the commercial sabotage.
Regina resisted the urge to turn the entire thing into a public takedown.
Instead, Laurent released a short factual statement.
The company acknowledged coordinated false reviews.
Published verified review procedures.
Invited legitimate customers—positive or negative—to contact an independent client-relations team.
No names.
No drama.
Andrew hated that.
He wanted reaction.
Meredith began to understand.
During one meeting, she looked at him across the rented office they had been using.
“You sent the pendant.”
He did not answer.
“Didn’t you?”
Andrew smiled.
“Why does it matter?”
“Because that isn’t business sabotage.”
“It’s leverage.”
“It’s stalking.”
His expression changed.
“You wanted revenge.”
“I wanted my career back.”
“No.”
Meredith stood.
“You wanted to hurt her.”
Andrew leaned back.
“Now you’re moral?”
The sentence hit.
Meredith looked at the fake-review dashboard on the screen.
At the accounts she had helped create.
At the rumors she had spread.
For the first time, she saw herself from a distance.
Not as a wronged executive.
Not as a defender of luxury standards.
As a woman who had spent years making judgments about strangers and now found herself helping a bitter man threaten another woman because losing status felt unbearable.
She left.
Andrew called after her.
She did not stop.
The next morning, Meredith contacted Serena Bishop.
“I want to talk.”
Serena replied through counsel.
The meeting lasted three hours.
Meredith turned over emails, login credentials, invoices, and messages linking Andrew to the campaign and the threatening package.
She did not receive her job back.
She did not ask.
When prosecutors later considered charges involving harassment and fraudulent online activity, Meredith cooperated.
Her attorney negotiated the consequences.
Andrew faced more serious legal exposure.
Regina never met with either one privately.
That disappointed the internet after the story eventually became public.
People wanted a confrontation.
Regina wanted the problem over.
Six months after the acquisition, Laurent & Pierce posted its strongest quarterly in four years.
Not because every customer suddenly approved of Regina.
Some longtime clients left.
Some disliked the new direction.
A few genuinely preferred the old atmosphere of exclusivity.
Others arrived.