Thank you, Mr. Miller.
Later, during the hotel presentation, footage of Reyes Forge appeared on the ballroom screens.
Chef Harrison stood at the microphone.
“I have used Thomas Reyes’s blades for more than thirty years,” he said.
“There are ordinary tools that cut food. Then there are pieces made by craftsmen whose work carries something of the person who created them.”
The room applauded.
By evening, video of Brian’s confrontation outside the forge had spread.
Several major partners announced they were reconsidering their relationships with The Hearth.
Then Beatrice appeared in the Grand Plaza lobby.
Her makeup was smeared.
She still wore the formal dress she had chosen for Charles’s birthday dinner.
Hotel security blocked her near the entrance.
“Samantha!”
Her voice echoed across the marble.
“I need to speak to you!”
I walked down the stairs.
She rushed toward me.
“You can fix everything!”
“No.”
“Pendelton respects you. Harrison knows you. Tell them Brian made a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
I looked at her.
“This morning you called my father a starving blacksmith.”
“I was angry.”
“You said your son rescued me and that my only value was serving your family.”
“They were words!”
“Yes.”
I nodded.
“And words tell people exactly how you see them.”
Her eyes moved to the identification badge on my dress.
CULINARY DIRECTOR — PARTNER.
Her face tightened.
“You are actually a partner here?”
Franklin Cooper approached carrying a binder.
“Samantha is far more than that.”
Beatrice turned.
“Excuse me?”
“Her consulting company helped form the foundation of this project.”
Beatrice stared at me.
“Consulting company?”
Then she laughed.
“Samantha never had a business.”
“She has run one successfully for years,” Cooper replied.
That was when the rest of the truth finally came out.
