Chapter 3 - Marlene Tried To Turn Me Into The Problem
The manager hurried over as soon as he saw Everett wave him down.
He knew exactly who Everett Sloan was. Everyone in the restaurant did.
Old money. Vineyard money. Foundation-board money.
The kind of man people stood straighter around.
Marlene seized on the moment immediately.
“This employee assaulted me and interrupted our dinner,” she said. “If this place has any standards at all, she should be fired tonight.”
I opened my mouth, but Everett cut in first.
“She may have just prevented me from drinking something I shouldn’t.”
The manager froze.
Marlene’s expression tightened.
Everett pointed to my cheek.
“And unless I’ve suddenly gone blind, your dinner companion also slapped her.”
The manager looked horrified.
Marlene lifted her chin. “She grabbed my table.”
“She grabbed my wine,” Everett corrected. “That is not the same thing.”
I stood there with my hand still touching my cheek, feeling strangely exposed. Normally, people like Marlene could humiliate girls like me in public and then make us disappear with one complaint.
But Everett wasn’t letting her rewrite the scene.
He turned to me.
“What’s your name?”
“Tessa. Tessa Vale.”
“Ms. Vale, you’re staying.”
Marlene laughed again, colder this time.
“Everett, this is ridiculous. She’s manipulating you.”
But something in his expression had changed. He was no longer embarrassed by a scene at dinner.
He was interested.
And deeply suspicious.
“Bring the house surveillance officer,” he told the manager. “And someone from the bar station. Now.”
Marlene’s fingers tightened around the stem of her water glass.
May you like
That tiny movement told me she understood what came next before anyone else at the table did.
If the clip was real, then the truth wasn’t far behind it.
