Chapter 1 - The Fountain
Vanessa Carlisle stuck out one silver heel, and I went straight into the fountain.
Six champagne glasses shattered around me.
Nearly two hundred guests watched me come up soaked, bleeding at the knee, and still wearing the black server uniform Vanessa thought told her everything she needed to know about me.
"You should clean that up before somebody gets hurt," Vanessa said.
I climbed over the marble edge and stood dripping beneath the chandeliers.
Doctors. Investors. Hospital executives. Donors who had spent all evening talking about compassion.
"You should be careful what you do next."
I reached into my soaked apron and pulled out my phone.
There was one call I had hoped all night I would never have to make.
Daniel answered on the first ring.
"Tell me."
"Bring them in."
"All of them?"
I looked at Vanessa.
"Yes."
"Four minutes."
She laughed when I hung up. "Who exactly did you call?"
"Someone who already knows why I'm here."
Vanessa turned to Howard Mills, the catering manager.
"Remove her. My family gave eighty thousand dollars tonight. I don't expect to be insulted by staff."
"Seventy-five," I said.
"What?"
"Your family's donation was seventy-five thousand. Not eighty."
Vanessa stepped closer. "How would a waitress know that?"
Three weeks earlier, I had reviewed the Carlisle donor agreement myself.
And I knew her father's signature appeared on two documents he had sworn he had never seen.
Howard noticed blood running into my shoe.
"Go downstairs," he whispered. "I'll handle this."
Vanessa blocked me.
"She owes me an apology."
Three black SUVs stopped beneath the portico.
Daniel Cross stepped out of the first one.
May you like
Vanessa knew exactly who he was.
And when she looked from him to me, fear finally replaced her smile.
