Chapter 6 - The Gala of Perfect Smiles
Victoria called the upcoming event the Ashbourne Legacy Gala.
She ordered ten thousand white roses, rented antique silverware from Paris, and approved a menu so complicated that the kitchen staff rehearsed it for four nights.
The invitation described the evening as a celebration of tradition, service, and family.
No hotel employee believed those words.
Three days before the gala, Victoria entered the ballroom during rehearsal and found Emma arranging crystal glasses.
“You are still here,” Victoria said.
Emma continued working.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I heard you paid for another employee’s medical appointment.”
“She was injured.”
“That was not your responsibility.”
“It should have been the hotel’s responsibility.”
Victoria’s eyes narrowed.
“You have opinions beyond your position.”
Emma placed another glass on the table.
“My position gives me a good view.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“Employees like you make one common mistake. You see wealthy guests and imagine their lives are easy. You think power is something people are given.”
“What is power?”
“Taking the place you deserve before someone gives it to a weaker person.”
Emma looked at her.
“Is that what you are doing at the gala?”
For one second, Victoria appeared startled.
Then she smiled.
“You should be careful with questions.”
“And you should be careful with answers.”
Victoria’s smile disappeared.
She reached toward the table and deliberately moved one glass out of alignment.
“Fix that.”
Emma adjusted it.
Victoria moved it again.
“Fix it.”
Emma adjusted it a second time.
Several employees watched from across the ballroom.
Victoria leaned closer.
“I can keep you here all night.”
Emma held her gaze.
“But you cannot make me afraid of you.”
The silence between them stretched.
Victoria turned toward Mr. Coleman.
“Remove her from the gala schedule.”
Mr. Coleman hesitated.
“We are already short six servers.”
“Then be short seven.”
Emma removed her gloves.
“Thank you for telling me directly.”
Victoria looked disappointed by the lack of panic.
“You seem unusually confident for someone about to lose her job.”
“I have learned that losing the wrong position can reveal the right one.”
Victoria stared at her.
Emma left the ballroom.
She returned twenty minutes later through the executive corridor, where Margaret Sloan waited with an emergency order from Richard restoring Emma to the schedule.
The document did not reveal Emma’s identity. It stated only that no gala employee could be dismissed without human resources review.
Victoria read the order twice.
“Richard signed this?”
“Yes,” Margaret said.
“Why would he involve himself in banquet staffing?”
Margaret smiled politely.
“You should ask him.”
Victoria watched Emma return to work.
Suspicion entered her expression.
That evening, Victoria went to Arthur’s suite.
Emma followed through the service corridor and listened from an adjoining pantry.
“You promised to support me,” Victoria said.
“I promised to attend a gala,” Arthur replied.
“The board must see unity.”
“Unity is not obedience.”
“You are placing the hotel at risk.”
“I built the hotel.”
“And now you can barely move through it without help.”
Emma heard a sharp silence.
Victoria continued more softly.
“I am trying to protect you from humiliation. Richard is failing. Employees are complaining. Investors are nervous. Sign the proxy, and I will handle everything.”
“No.”
“Arthur.”
“No.”
“You may not have another opportunity.”
The threat was subtle, but unmistakable.
Emma activated the recorder on her phone.
Victoria lowered her voice.
“Think carefully. If the board begins questioning your mental capacity, you could lose more than voting rights. You could lose control of your medical decisions.”
Arthur’s answer was calm.
“Are you threatening to have me declared incompetent?”
“I am explaining what may happen if people see you confused.”
“You mean if you tell them I am confused.”
“I mean if you force me to protect this family from you.”
Emma’s hand tightened around the phone.
Arthur spoke after a long pause.
“Bring the document to the gala.”
Emma almost stepped into the room.
Then Arthur tapped twice against the wooden arm of his chair.
The sound carried through the pantry wall.
I understand.
Victoria believed she had won.
After she left, Emma entered the suite.
Arthur sat near the window.
“You frightened me,” she said.
“I needed her to believe I would sign.”
“She threatened your medical independence.”
“And now we have a recording.”
Emma held up the phone.
Arthur smiled.
“Your grandmother would have enjoyed this.”
“This is not a game.”
“No. Games have rules.”
He reached for her hand.
“Victoria may discover who you are before the gala.”
“She will not.”
“She has survived this long because she recognizes danger.”
Emma looked toward the closed door.
“Then we make sure she recognizes it too late.”
The night before the gala, Emma found her locker open.
Nothing appeared missing.
On top of her folded uniform lay an old newspaper photograph.
It showed Alexandra Ashbourne entering the hotel twenty-five years earlier.
Beside her walked a teenage Emma.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Emma’s face.
On the back, a message had been written in black ink.
I know what you are trying to do.
Emma looked down the empty locker room.
Her phone rang.
Victoria’s name appeared on the screen.
Emma answered.
May you like
“You should have stayed in London,” Victoria said.
The line went dead.
