Chapter 13 - Everett Asked Me To Come Back
Two days later, I thought the whole nightmare was over.
Then Everett Sloan asked to see me again.
This time it wasn’t at the restaurant.
It was at his office above one of the family’s private tasting rooms.
I almost didn’t go. People like him and people like me do not usually have second chapters.
But I went.
He offered me coffee.
Then he placed my father’s old business card on the table.
He had kept it all these years.
“I looked into you,” he said. “Not to frighten you. I wanted to understand who raised the woman who crossed a room full of wealthy strangers to stop one of them from drinking.”
I smiled faintly. “My dad.”
“Yes,” Everett said. “I gathered that.”
Then he told me what had happened since the restaurant.
All of Marlene’s event access was revoked.
Her financial dealings with his foundation were being audited.
The attempted drugging had become part of a formal criminal complaint.
And the emergency asset-transfer paperwork had done her no favors whatsoever.
He then looked at me with a strange expression.
“Your father once told me you wanted to study wine properly.”
I blinked.
I had told my father that when I was sixteen.
He had repeated it to Everett years before he died.
“I still do,” I admitted.
Everett nodded.
“Then I’d like to fund your certification.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You saved my life, Tessa. But this isn’t charity. It’s investment. Your father had instinct. You have courage. I believe you also have talent.”
I couldn’t speak for several seconds.
Then I said the only honest thing I had.
“She told me to know my place.”
May you like
Everett’s eyes sharpened.
“And perhaps,” he said, “this is where you finally decide it for yourself.”
