Second Chance For Revenge

Chapter 7

The silence in the restaurant was heavy and suffocating.

Every single person in the hall was staring at the scene in the middle of the room. The guards had frozen in their tracks, their hands hovering near their batons, not knowing whether to move forward or step back.

Henry sat with his mouth hanging open, his expensive drink forgotten on the table. James and Jane Hills had gone completely still at their table. But no one was more shocked than Tina.

Tina stood there with her eyes wide, looking between Gerald and the stunning woman who had just bowed to him. Her brain was working overtime, trying to find a way to make sense of what she was seeing. It had to be a mistake. It had to be some kind of joke. This woman, who looked like she owned the entire city, couldn't possibly be here for a factory worker who couldn't even pay for his food.

Tina stepped forward, her face twisting into a mask of desperate confusion. She was so sure of her own reality that she couldn't see the danger standing right in front of her.

"Wait! Miss, you must be mistaken!" Tina said, her voice high and shaky. She tried to force a smile, but it looked more like a grimace.

"I think you have the wrong man. This is Gerald. He's my ex-husband. He works in a warehouse for forty dollars an hour. We were literally just about to have him thrown out because he tried to scam this restaurant with a fake card. He's a nobody. He's useless. He probably saw you coming and tried to act like he knew you just to save himself from getting thrown in the alley."

The woman didn't say a word. She didn't even turn her head to look at Tina. She kept her eyes on Gerald, her smile staying perfectly in place. This only made Tina more frantic. She felt invisible, and that was something she had never been able to handle.

"Did you hear me?" Tina continued, her voice getting louder and more shrill. "He's a liar! He's been lying to everyone all night. He told the manager he has millions of dollars, but his card was declined twice just a few seconds ago. He's broke. He lives in a tiny apartment. Whatever business you think you have with him, I promise you, he is not the man you're looking for. You're too important to be seen standing next to trash like him!"

Tina finally stopped talking, breathing hard, waiting for the woman to realize her mistake and thank her for saving her from embarrassment.

Instead, the woman turned.

The movement was slow and graceful, but the look in her eyes was like a blade pulled from ice. Before Tina could even blink, the woman's hand moved.

SLAP!

The sound cracked through the restaurant like thunder. Tina's head snapped sideways, her body stumbling from the force of it. She let out a sharp cry, her hand flying to her cheek which was already burning bright red.

Henry shot to his feet so fast his chair scraped back across the marble. James Hills grabbed the edge of the table. Jane covered her mouth with both hands.

The woman looked down at Tina, who had stumbled and dropped to the floor. Tina looked up with tears of shock blurring her vision. The woman's face showed no anger. Just pure, cold disgust.

"You talk too much for someone so insignificant," she said, her voice quiet and clear. She didn't need to shout. Every word carried to every corner of the room.

She turned back to Gerald, her expression shifting completely, warm and respectful again like nothing had just happened.

"I apologize for the delay, Mr. Gerald," she said. "The reason your card was declined is entirely our fault. We transferred your compensation this morning - over two million dollars - as part of an emergency settlement for your shares in the Newtop project. We moved too quickly and didn't file the proper paperwork with the central bank first, so your account was flagged for suspicious activity. That was our mistake and it has already been fixed."

The room went completely still.

Lora felt the floor shift beneath her feet. She grabbed the edge of the counter to steady herself, her face going white as a sheet. She looked at the payment terminal, then at Gerald, then back at the woman standing beside him.

"You... you mean the money is real?" Lora whispered. "He actually has it?"

Sweat broke out across her forehead. Her hands were shaking. She knew exactly who this woman was. If she was saying the money was real, then it was real. And that meant Lora had just ordered her security guards to throw out a multi-millionaire.

"So he wasn't trying to scam us?" Lora's voice cracked as the full weight of what she had done hit her.

It wasn't just the lost sale. It was her career. It was the restaurant's reputation. It was everything she had spent years building.

The woman gave her a single cold look that answered the question better than any words could.

"My company's legal team is already speaking with the bank's board of directors," she said calmly. "The block on Mr. Gerald's account will be lifted within the next five minutes. However, I don't believe he will be spending a single cent in this restaurant."

She turned back to Gerald, her voice dropping to something softer.

"Since this place clearly doesn't know how to treat the right people, would you do me the honor of joining me at The Zenith tonight, Mr. Gerald?"

The Zenith.

The name hit the crowd like a bomb. It sat at the very top of the Diamond Tower, the most exclusive restaurant in the entire city. The kind of place where world leaders made quiet deals and old money families celebrated in private. Even the Hills family, with all their connections, needed months on a waiting list just to get a table.

And this woman was offering Gerald a seat there like it was nothing.

Regret spread across the room like a cold wave. The crowd that had been laughing minutes ago suddenly found their plates very interesting. People looked away, avoiding Gerald's eyes. The Hills table had gone completely quiet.

Henry sat back down slowly, his face tight. James and Jane Hills said nothing. There was nothing left to say.

Tina was still on the floor, her cheek red, her eyes wide, watching everything fall apart.

But it was Lora who was in the worst state of all.

She came out from behind the counter on shaking legs. She crossed the floor and dropped to her knees in front of Gerald, her hands pressed together.

"Mr. Gerald, please," Lora said, her voice breaking. "I was lied to. Everything I was told about you came from her." She glanced at Tina, then quickly looked back at Gerald. "I should have trusted my own judgment instead of listening to people with personal reasons to lie. Please, the entire order is on us. Every single portion, free of charge. I will personally handle it. Please don't let this get back to the owners. This restaurant is my life's work."

She knew what was coming if word got out. One call from the woman standing beside Gerald and the restaurant would be finished before the week was over. Suppliers would pull out. Investors would walk. The doors would close forever.

Gerald looked down at her for a long moment. His face didn't change. No satisfaction, no anger, nothing she could read.

"You should have looked at the card, Lora," he said quietly. "Not the jacket."