Hannah could have invented a schedule conflict.
Instead, she explained that she had been dismissed after paying for a guest’s dinner.
The supervisor listened without interrupting.
“I can’t promise you a position,” she said.
“But I can promise your application will be considered on its own merits.”
Hannah left feeling better than she had after Eleanor’s phone call.
She had begun to understand that returning to her old job and being treated fairly were not necessarily the same thing.
Chapter 9: The Missing Walkway
Miriam’s review began with a measurement rather than a confrontation.
A surveyor walked the disputed harbor path with a measuring wheel and compared the distance with the descriptions in the twelve bidding packets.
The public easement should have provided an uninterrupted route between the ferry landing and the old market stairs.
Charles’s newest drawing replaced a section of that route with a private reception court.
The route might technically remain accessible during business hours, but the trust’s deed did not authorize access to depend on a hotel’s opening schedule.
Miriam photographed the discrepancy and asked the surveyor to document it.
Then she found a second drawing with a different date.
The drawing submitted to the trust preserved the walkway.
The drawing circulated to investors did not.
Miriam called Celia Fane.
“Who prepared your copy?” she asked.
“Charles’s development team.”
“Do you still have the email?”
“Every page of it.”
Miriam made an appointment to see her.
The old man at the Meridian had exposed a question that no amount of public relations could answer.
Somebody had been promising twelve wealthy people control over something that was never theirs to purchase.
Chapter 10: The Second Meeting
Hannah returned to the Meridian through the front entrance wearing a gray sweater and her mother’s small silver earrings.
She had decided she would never again enter by the service door simply because a manager told her that her presence embarrassed guests.
Eleanor met her in a private office beside the kitchen.
Luis sat at one end of the table as a witness at Hannah’s request.
Adrian was not present.
Eleanor apologized for the public firing and acknowledged that the restaurant had no written rule against purchasing a meal for another guest.
She offered Hannah her position with back pay and a guaranteed schedule for the next four weeks.
Hannah considered the proposal.
“I want an accurate record of why I was fired,” she said.
“We can correct the personnel file.”
“I also want the staff to know they can report a guest’s abusive behavior without being punished.”
