“Why do you suddenly want me to leave?”
Richard's jaw tightened.
“I don't.”
“Ten minutes ago you couldn't wait to hear me speak Mandarin.”
Nobody moved.
Danielle continued.
“Now you're afraid I'll translate one sentence.”
Richard's face reddened.
“Be very careful.”
The words were quiet.
The room heard them anyway.
Liang's expression hardened.
Danielle felt something cold settle in her stomach.
She could walk away.
Or she could say what she'd heard.
She looked at Liang.
“Your analysts received an April environmental estimate of thirty-eight million dollars.”
Liang nodded.
Richard said:
“Danielle.”
She continued.
“The document at this table says twenty-two point four.”
One of the executives slowly closed his laptop.
Richard stepped toward her.
“That is confidential.”
Danielle looked at him.
“I didn't ask to hear it.”
“You had no right—”
“You spent the entire dinner assuming I couldn't understand the language being spoken three feet away from me.”
Richard stopped.
There was nothing he could say to that.
Liang opened the Harbor Point binder.
“Richard.”
Richard didn't answer.
“Why did the number change?”
“We discussed this.”
“No. Your team told us the scope changed.”
“It did.”
“Then show me the revised soil analysis.”
Richard looked toward the binder.
Nobody spoke.
Liang waited.
“Richard?”
“Our environmental consultants updated their assumptions.”
“Which consultants?”
“Liang, this is neither the time nor—”
“Which consultants?”
Richard's eyes flicked toward Danielle.
That was when she knew.
Whatever this was, it wasn't simply a misunderstanding.
Liang saw it too.
He closed the binder.
“We're not signing tonight.”
Richard went pale.
“Don't be ridiculous.”
“We're done.”
“Liang, we have spent six months—”
“And another twenty-four hours will not destroy a sound investment.”
He stood.
“If it is sound.”
That sentence hit Richard harder than anything Danielle had said.
His two executives stood with him.
Richard remained motionless.
Liang turned toward Danielle.
“You won the bet.”
She looked at the check.
Then at Richard.
“No.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“Don't perform morality now. Take it.”
Danielle picked up the check.
For one second, Richard looked satisfied.
Then she tore it in half.
A gasp moved through the dining room.
She tore it again.
Four pieces.
She placed them beside his wineglass.
“I needed that money when you thought I was stupid.”
Richard stared at her.
Danielle tied her apron around her waist.
“But I'd rather leave here owing money than spend the rest of my life remembering I let you buy the right to humiliate me.”
She turned.
And then something happened Danielle hadn't expected.
Someone stood.