SHE POURED WATER ON A WOMAN SHE THOUGHT COULDN’T AFFORD THE $80,000 DRESS — THEN THE OWNER WALKED IN

Edward’s office sat above the bridal salon behind a wall of smoked glass. Ten minutes later, Sophia stood inside it wearing a borrowed robe while an assistant dried her cardigan downstairs.

Monica had not been invited up.

Neither had security.

That was the first thing Sophia noticed.

“Why is she still on the floor?” Sophia asked.

Edward loosened his tie. “Because if I fire her before we know what happened, she can claim retaliation, destroy relationships, and warn anyone involved.”

“Anyone involved in what?”

Edward hesitated.

Sophia stared at him. “You called me last week and said the complaint numbers didn’t make sense. You asked me to visit without telling anyone. Now a consultant dumps water on me and panics when I mention video. Start talking.”

He opened a folder.

Three anonymous complaints had come in during the past month. One bride claimed she had been pressured to pay a ten-thousand-dollar “priority fitting fee” that did not appear on her invoice. Another said a consultant threatened to give away her reserved gown unless she wired money to a private account. A third complaint came from an employee who wrote only one sentence:

MONICA IS NOT THE ONLY ONE.

Sophia read it twice.

“Atelier Cole has cameras everywhere,” she said.

“Supposedly.”

Edward turned his monitor toward her.

The security system showed twelve camera feeds.

Four were black.

One of them covered the fitting-room corridor.

Another covered the stockroom.

Sophia felt a cold pressure settle behind her ribs.

“Since when?”

“According to IT, intermittent failures started six weeks ago.”