Talia put the phone down.
Adrien entered the room carrying a small plate of sliced fruit.
He noticed her expression.
"What's wrong?"
She nodded toward the phone.
"People are talking."
He placed the plate on the coffee table.
"I expected they would."
"I didn't want this."
"I know."
She picked up the phone again.
"Look at this."
Adrien sat beside her.
She showed him the video.
He watched without speaking.
When it ended, he returned the phone.
"They left out the part where Martin told you to clean the floor."
"And the part where everyone watched."
"Yes."
Talia stared at the screen.
"I feel like I'm watching someone else."
Adrien took her hand.
"That's understandable."
She leaned back.
"I keep thinking about Emily. She was so scared."
"She told the truth."
"She could lose her job."
"She won't."
Talia looked at him.
"Please don't promise things before the investigation."
Adrien nodded.
"You're right. I won't make promises I can't keep."
He paused.
"But I can guarantee that the company will not retaliate against her for providing a truthful statement. That is a policy decision I can enforce."
Talia relaxed slightly.
"Thank you."
Adrien's phone rang.
He looked at the screen.
"Daniel."
He answered.
"Go ahead."
Daniel Mercer was Adrien's chief operating officer and one of the few people who had worked with him since Kingsley Industries was a small investment firm operating out of two rented offices.
Daniel was efficient, direct, and almost impossible to surprise.
Today, however, he sounded concerned.
"Adrien, we have a problem."
"What kind?"
"The Ridgeview incident is trending. The media is asking for a statement. Three employees have contacted human resources, and two former employees have submitted complaints about Martin Voss."
Adrien straightened.
"Former employees?"
"Yes. One claims she was dismissed after reporting discriminatory comments from customers. Another says she was repeatedly denied promotion opportunities."
Talia heard the conversation.
She slowly lowered her mug.
Adrien glanced at her.
"Have the complaints been preserved?"
"Yes. But there is more."
"What?"
"An anonymous email arrived in the corporate reporting system about twenty minutes ago. It claims that the Ridgeview location has a history of falsified customer incident reports."
Adrien's expression hardened.
"Falsified how?"
"Complaints involving employees were supposedly recorded as customer dissatisfaction. The email also says that some staff members were pressured to sign statements they hadn't written."
Talia looked at Adrien.
He continued listening.
"Who received the email?"
"Human resources. The sender used an anonymous address."
"Forward it to legal and the independent review team. Nobody at the location should have access to the original file."
"Understood."
Adrien ended the call.
Talia sat quietly.
"That doesn't sound like one bad afternoon."
"No," he said.
"It sounds like something that has been happening for a long time."
Adrien looked at her.
"That's what we're going to find out."
The following morning, an independent investigation began.
Adrien refused to place the review under the control of Ridgeview's regional management team.
Instead, he hired an outside employment law firm and an independent workplace auditor.
Their first task was to secure the restaurant's records.
Security footage.
Employee schedules.
Disciplinary reports.
Customer complaints.
Payroll information.
Internal emails.
Management evaluations.
Every document that could reveal how Ridgeview had operated over the previous three years.
The second task was to interview employees.
Emily Carter arrived at the corporate office shortly after nine.
She wore a simple blue sweater and dark trousers. Her hands were shaking when she entered the conference room.
A human resources investigator named Rachel Morgan greeted her.
"Thank you for coming, Emily."
Emily nodded.
"Am I in trouble?"
Rachel looked surprised.
"No. You're here because you witnessed an incident, and we want to understand what happened."
Emily sat down.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she began.
She explained how Martin had treated Talia.
She described the comments he made about customers.
She talked about the way he divided employees into two groups: those who were considered valuable and those who were expected to accept whatever treatment came their way.
She described schedule changes that appeared designed to punish employees who questioned him.
And she told Rachel something that made the investigator stop writing.
"Martin used to say that some customers were worth more than certain employees."
Rachel looked up.
"Did he give examples?"
Emily nodded.
"He said that if a regular customer complained about a server, the server should apologize even if the customer was lying. He said losing one employee was cheaper than losing a wealthy customer."
"Did he ever say that about Talia?"
Emily hesitated.
"Yes."
"Tell me."
Emily took a breath.