“You have no business calling yourself a responsible mother,” my manager shouted—minutes later, she was standing outside the owner’s private office in stunned silence.

Melissa’s jaw trembled. "Mr. Calloway, please understand... I was acting in the best interest of Harbor & Ash!"

Everett slowly sat up in his chair, adjusting his cuffs with calm, deliberate precision. Despite having just cheated death, his commanding presence filled the room completely.

"You told a mother who has worked for this establishment for three years that she had no business calling herself responsible," Everett said, his sharp eyes narrowing as he glared at the manager. "You humiliated her in front of the entire staff because her child was sick."

"She broke protocol!" Melissa argued defensively, her voice cracking with desperation. "Employees are not allowed to bring family members into service areas!"

"Protocol?" Everett scoffed quietly. He pulled a sleek silver tablet from his desk drawer and tapped the screen twice. "Let's talk about protocol, Melissa."

Nora watched in silence, holding Lily as Everett turned the tablet toward Melissa.

"I spent the last two hours before I collapsed reviewing the internal audit for Harbor & Ash," Everett revealed, his voice dropping into a deadly register. "It seems that over the last six months, thirty thousand dollars in private banquet deposits have been diverted into an offshore LLC registered under your maiden name."

Melissa gasped, her eyes widening in pure horror. "That's... that's a misunderstanding! I can explain—"

"You didn't fire Nora because she brought her child to work," Everett said coldly. "You fired her because she was the lead banquet coordinator who was about to audit tonight's ledger—the same ledger that would have exposed your embezzlement."

Nora’s head snapped toward Melissa in complete shock. "You were stealing from the restaurant?"

Melissa took a frantic step backward into the corridor, looking wildly around the hallway. "You can't prove that!"

"I don't need to prove it here," Everett said calmly, pressing a button on his desk phone. "The financial crimes division of the Boston Police Department is waiting downstairs in the lobby right now. Security!"

Two heavy-set security guards in black suits appeared behind Melissa in the hallway, pinning her arms behind her back before she could run.

"Get your hands off me!" Melissa screamed, struggling against the guards as they began dragging her down the carpeted hallway past the stunned waitstaff. "Mr. Calloway, please! Give me another chance!"

Everett didn't even look up as the security guards led her away, her screaming fading into the distance until the heavy double doors clicked shut.

The room went completely silent once again.

Nora stood near the desk, holding her sleeping baby, her head spinning from the absolute velocity of what had just transpired in less than ten minutes.