Chapter 1 - The Hand She Stopped
Nicole Rowan's hand was already swinging when Nina Ortiz caught her wrist.
"You're just the help!" Nicole spat. The Boston ballroom smelled of lilies. A waiter froze beside a marble column.
Nina held Nicole's arm just long enough to stop a second slap. Then she let go and stepped into the open, where everyone could see both her hands.
"Ask her why the guest list was changed," she said.
Nicole's smile returned too quickly. "Security. Get this woman out."
Brandon Rowan pushed through the crowd. His father, Sebastian, followed more slowly, leaning on a cane but missing nothing. On the table between them sat a black leather document folio nobody had admitted bringing. A folded gala program lay beside it.
"What happened?" Brandon asked.
"Your wife tried to hit me," Nina said. "I stopped her. I didn't hit back."
"She stole a document," Nicole said.
"Then tell us which one."
Before taking banquet shifts at the Fenwick Grand, Nina had logged grants for the Rowan Family Foundation. She knew when a number had been changed on purpose.
She unfolded the program. One column promised $240,000 for Harbor House, the community learning center funded by Sebastian's late wife. The earlier printing in Nina's apron pocket said $2.4 million.
Sebastian took the two sheets. His eyes narrowed. "Who authorized this revision?"
Nicole lunged for the original. Nina kept it out of reach.
"Why did you need me working this event?" Nina asked. "You asked the staffing company for me by name."
A phone vibrated beside the abandoned folio. Nicole glanced toward it before she could stop herself.
"Nobody touches a phone," she snapped. "Collect them. All of them."
"Not happening," Brandon said. "I want a report while the witnesses are still here."
A black hotel keycard lay among the discarded place cards. On its sleeve, someone had written 614. Nicole saw Nina pick it up. For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
May you like
"If you open that," she whispered, "this family is finished."
Nina turned the sleeve over. Written beneath the room number, in block capitals, was her own name.
