Delphine grabbed the back of my hoodie and yanked, marching me toward the revolving door like I was a shoplifter caught on camera. “People like you don’t belong in a house like Beau Monde,” she hissed into my ear. “Go back to whatever gutter spat you out.” That’s when the front doors slid open and my head of security, Anton, stepped inside with four suited men behind him, earpieces glinting. He didn’t raise his voice. He just said, “Ma’am, please remove your hand from Miss Whitfield.” Delphine laughed. She actually laughed. “Miss who? This little rat?” Anton held up his tablet and turned the screen toward her. On it was the confidential ownership document she’d signed her employment contract under three months ago. The name at the very top of the parent holding company was mine. I watched the color drain from her face in real time, one shade at a time, like someone slowly turning down a dimmer. The two socialites stopped giggling. The security guard took a step back from her, not me. My regional director came sprinting down the escalator, breathless, apologizing before he even reached us, calling me “Madam Chairwoman” loud enough for the whole floor to hear. Delphine’s knees actually buckled. She grabbed the display case to stay upright and knocked over the very handbag she’d torn from my hands. “I— I didn’t— you were dressed—” she stammered. I picked the clutch up off the floor, dusted it gently, and placed it back on its velvet pedestal. Then I looked her dead in the eye and said, very quietly, “You just told the owner of this building that she doesn’t belong in it. On camera. In front of witnesses.” I turned to Anton. “Pull every clip from the last ten minutes. And bring me her file.” Delphine started to cry. Nobody moved to comfort her. Nobody ever does.
I poured myself a cup of coffee, slow and deliberate, while Brielle’s friends filmed. ‘Sweetheart,’ I said, ‘before you redecorate, you should meet someone.’ The […]
