At the same time, Elise Grant was dealing with a separate problem at the Exchange.
Several promotional videos had already been loaded onto screens around the railway hall.
They showed the models sewing, but close inspection revealed that the needle movements were demonstrations rather than the techniques used in the garments.
Elise called Nathan and asked who had approved the videos.
He admitted that he had signed off on the final advertising budget but had not reviewed every caption.
“Then you share responsibility for how this was promoted,” she told him.
Nathan agreed and requested an immediate correction.
Vivian answered by demanding that the screens remain active because sponsors had paid for visibility.
Elise refused to describe a disputed training program as verified merely because the advertising slots were sold.
“You can show the garments without telling false stories about who made them,” she said.
“The story is what makes them valuable,” Vivian replied.
“The garments have value because people made them,” Elise answered.
The exchange ended with Elise ordering the misleading captions removed.
Vivian walked away before the technician had finished changing the screens.
When Nathan told his mother that the alterations were necessary, she accused him of betraying a business she had built for twenty years.
“I’m trying to keep the business from promising something it can’t prove,” he said.
“You can’t understand what it costs to make this company look successful,” she snapped.
“I understand that the people making the clothes should not carry those costs alone.”
Vivian slapped the folder against a table and left him standing in the empty hall.
At noon, a second buyer named Thomas Reeve entered the building with a production consultant.
He had prepaid for a private viewing and demanded to know whether the company could still supply the promised collection.
Nathan told him that the worker claims and payment questions had not been resolved.
Thomas looked at the racks and asked whether the garments themselves were defective.
“The quality is extraordinary,” Nathan admitted.
“The problem is what we’ve told you about the people who made them.”
Thomas folded his arms.
“If those people are owed money, I need that answered before I put their work in my stores.”
Vivian emerged from behind the curtains and accused her son of negotiating against the company.
Thomas interrupted her.
“Nobody is negotiating yet,” he said.
“I’m asking who stitched the pieces.”
Vivian tried to introduce him to the hired models, but Keira was standing nearby and refused to play her assigned role.
“I didn’t stitch any of them,” she said.
Thomas looked at Vivian without speaking.
For the first time, the room felt smaller than the woman who had spent years controlling it.
