Chapter 3 - What David Sterling Had Really Sold
Emily Carter wanted to disappear.
She wanted to take Rory by the hand, walk out the back door, and pretend none of it had happened.
Instead, Vincent Kane pulled out a chair.
“Sit down.”
Emily stared at him.
“I really need to return to my tables.”
“No.”
David Sterling's voice came quickly.
“Yes, she does.”
Vincent turned his head.
David stopped talking.
Vincent pointed toward the chair again.
“Emily.”
Her name sounded strange in his voice.
Not threatening.
Not friendly.
Simply final.
Emily sat.
Rory climbed into the chair beside her.
Vincent remained standing.
“Bring every employee working today into the dining room.”
David laughed nervously.
“Vincent, this is getting absurd.”
Vincent looked toward one of his men.
“Marco.”
A broad-shouldered man nodded.
“Lock the front doors.”
Emily stiffened.
Vincent noticed.
“Not to keep anyone in.”
He looked toward David.
“To keep him from leaving.”
David's expression hardened.
“You have no authority here.”
Vincent's eyes rested on him.
“That is the second incorrect assumption you've made in five minutes.”
David reached for his phone.
One of Vincent's men calmly placed a hand over it.
“No.”
David snapped, “Take your hand off me.”
The man didn't move.
Vincent walked toward the bar and picked up the fallen Porsche keys.
He turned them over in his palm.
“Beautiful car?”
David said nothing.
Vincent tossed the keys onto the table in front of Rory.
She touched the silver emblem.
“It's shiny.”
Vincent almost smiled.
“Apparently.”
Emily whispered, “Mr. Kane, please.”
He looked at her.
“I don't want trouble.”
“You already have trouble.”
“I need this job.”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Whether this place deserves to continue employing anyone.”
That frightened her more than anything.
Emily stood abruptly.
“No.”
Rory jumped.
Vincent's guards shifted.
Emily didn't care.
“You cannot close this restaurant because of me. There are twenty-three people working here. Some have kids. Rosa sends money to her mother. Ben's wife is pregnant. Theo is trying to finish community college.”
Vincent watched her carefully.
“This isn't just me.”
“Exactly.”
David seized the opportunity.
“You see? She understands. We had a temporary payroll issue.”
Emily turned toward him.
Her fear burned away.
“A temporary payroll issue?”
David recoiled at her tone.
“You paid the wine supplier.”
“We need inventory.”
“You paid for new chandeliers.”
“Capital improvements.”
“You paid yourself.”
David's eyes narrowed.
“Watch yourself.”
Emily stepped closer.
“For eleven weeks, I watched myself.”
Her voice shook.
“I watched every dollar. I watched Rory ask why we stopped buying strawberries. I watched the electricity warning arrive. I watched you park a Porsche outside the same restaurant where you told me payroll couldn't make my check.”
David lowered his voice.
“You want to discuss employment?”
Vincent spoke behind him.
“She no longer works for you.”
Emily turned.
“What?”
Neither David nor Vincent looked away from each other.
Vincent said, “You're fired, Emily.”
David blinked.
“Excuse me?”
Vincent ignored him.
Emily looked horrified.
“I can't—”
Vincent continued, “Because before this conversation ends, David Sterling will no longer be in a position to employ you.”
The room filled with workers.
Cooks.
Servers.
Dishwashers.
Hosts.
Rory recognized almost everyone.
Many looked nervous.
Vincent faced them.
“Anyone here owed wages?”
Silence.
David smiled.
“See?”
Then an older dishwasher slowly raised his hand.
David's smile vanished.
A waitress raised hers.
Then another.
Then a cook.
Soon twelve hands were in the air.
Emily stared.
“I didn't know.”
“Of course you didn't,” Rosa said. “He told everyone not to discuss payroll.”
Vincent turned toward David.
“How much?”
David shrugged.
“I don't know.”
Vincent nodded toward Marco.
“Then we calculate.”
For the next hour, the restaurant transformed.
Vincent's men brought laptops from nearby offices.
Employees produced schedules.
Bank statements.
Screenshots of payroll messages.
Promises.
Excuses.
Emily's $5,430.30 was not the largest unpaid balance.
A sous chef was owed nearly eight thousand dollars.
A dishwasher was owed three weeks.
Two servers had never received overtime.
One hostess claimed David had removed hours from her time sheets.
The total climbed.
$18,000.
$31,000.
$46,000.
Finally Marco looked up.
“Verified so far, sixty-two thousand, eight hundred eleven dollars.”
The silence became heavy.
David's face was gray.
Vincent stared at him.
“You had a cash-flow problem.”
David forced a laugh.
“Yes.”
Marco spoke.
“The Porsche was paid in full.”
David looked at him.
“How would you know?”
Marco held up a printout.
“Your office computer was logged into the dealership account.”
David lunged toward him.
Two guards stopped him.
Vincent remained still.
“How much?”
Marco answered.
“Just over one hundred forty thousand with options and taxes.”
Rory's eyes widened.
“That's more than five thousand.”
Vincent looked at her.
“Much more.”
Emily covered her daughter's ears.
Vincent raised an eyebrow.
“I wasn't going to curse.”
“You look like you want to.”
One of the bodyguards looked away to hide a smile.
For the first time that day, Vincent actually did smile.
Briefly.
Then Marco's phone vibrated.
He read something.
His expression changed.
“Vincent.”
“What?”
“There are transfers.”
David stopped struggling.
Vincent noticed.
“What transfers?”
Marco turned the laptop.
“Sterling Hospitality operating account to a private LLC. Repeated withdrawals over eight months.”
Emily didn't understand the numbers.
Vincent did.
His eyes hardened.
“How much?”
“Approximately seven hundred and eighty thousand dollars.”
Several employees gasped.
David shouted, “That's none of your business!”
Vincent turned slowly.
“Money disappeared from the company while employees went unpaid.”
“It's my company!”
“That does not make theft legal.”
David laughed.
“You're lecturing me about legal?”
The room became still again.
Vincent walked forward.
Rory watched.
Vincent stopped inches from David.
“I don't pretend to be a saint.”
His voice was low.
“But a man who takes food from children so he can buy himself toys is something worse than a criminal.”
David's mouth tightened.
Vincent continued.
“He's pathetic.”
David swung at him.
It happened fast.
Emily pulled Rory against her.
Two of Vincent's men seized David before his fist came anywhere near its target.
Vincent never moved.
“Bad decision.”
David breathed heavily.
“You think you can humiliate me in my own restaurant?”
Vincent glanced toward the workers.
“I haven't humiliated you.”
He picked up Rory's work log.
“You did that yourself.”
Then Vincent noticed something.
A signature.
Each page of Emily's hours had been initialed by a manager.
Except several.
Vincent pointed.
“Who approved these?”
Emily looked.
“Mostly Caroline.”
“Who's Caroline?”
The workers exchanged glances.
Rosa answered.
“David's sister.”
Vincent turned toward David.
“Where is she?”
David laughed.
“You'll never get her involved.”
Vincent's phone rang.
He answered.
“Kane.”
He listened.
His face changed.
Emily watched him.
“What?”
Vincent ended the call.
Then he looked directly at David.
“Your sister just tried to empty three company accounts.”
David went completely still.
Vincent continued.
“She failed.”
“How?”
Vincent placed his phone on the table.
“Because the accounts are frozen.”
David stared.
“You can't freeze my accounts.”
“I didn't.”
Vincent glanced toward the front doors.
Three men in suits were entering.
Not Vincent's men.
One displayed credentials.
“David Sterling?”
David's breathing stopped.
The man approached.
“We need to discuss payroll records, tax withholding, and several financial complaints.”
Emily looked at Vincent.
“You called them?”
Vincent's expression gave nothing away.
“I made one phone call.”
David looked from the investigators to Vincent.
“You planned this.”
“No.”
Vincent glanced at Rory.
“She did.”
Every eye turned toward the little girl.
Rory pointed at herself.
“Me?”
Vincent nodded.
“You brought the evidence.”
David suddenly snapped.
He twisted free from one guard.
Not toward Vincent.
Toward Rory's paper.
He grabbed the work log.
“No!”
Rory screamed.
David tore the first page.
Emily rushed forward.
Vincent moved faster.
He caught David's wrist.
For the first time all day, Vincent Kane looked openly furious.
“Do not.”
Two simple words.
David froze.
Vincent took the torn sheet from his hand.
Then he looked at Rory.
She was crying.
Not because she was frightened.
Because her purple stars were ripped.
Vincent carefully placed the pieces together on the table.
“We can fix paper.”
Rory sniffed.
“You promise?”
“Yes.”
“Mom says promises cost nothing.”
The room became quiet.
Vincent looked at Emily.
She looked embarrassed.
Then he looked at Rory.
“Your mother is right.”
He tapped the paper.
“So I'll prove it instead.”
Before the investigators escorted David away for questioning, David turned toward Emily.
“You think you've won?”
She stared at him.
He smiled.
“You have no idea what you've just destroyed.”
Vincent stepped between them.
David looked at him.
And smiled again.
“Ask her who actually owns Sterling's Bistro.”
Vincent's expression shifted.
Emily frowned.
“What does that mean?”
David kept smiling as he was taken away.
Vincent turned toward Marco.
“Find out.”
Twenty minutes later, Marco returned carrying a folder.
Vincent opened it.
His jaw tightened.
Emily whispered, “What?”
Vincent read the first page twice.
Then looked toward the restaurant workers.
“The building is collateral.”
“For what?” Emily asked.
Marco answered.
“A private loan.”
Vincent looked toward the windows.
“When David Sterling misses the next payment, this entire place can be seized.”
Emily's face fell.
“When?”
Marco checked the document.
“Tomorrow morning.”
And suddenly paying sixty thousand dollars in missing wages was no longer the biggest problem.
May you like
Twenty-three workers were about to lose their jobs.
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