Chapter 2 - The Offer No One Refused
At exactly nine the next morning, I returned to Belladonna with Ava in my arms.
I had spent the entire night imagining every possible reason Dominic Moretti wanted to see me.
None of them ended well.
A tall guard named Marco met me at the entrance.
He looked intimidating, with a dark suit and a scar above his left eyebrow, but his expression softened when Ava reached toward his tie.
“She likes shiny things,” I explained.
Marco removed a silver tie clip and held it out.
Ava grabbed it immediately.
“That was a gift,” he said.
“I’ll make her give it back.”
He studied her determined grip.
“Keep it.”
He led me downstairs.
Dominic was behind a wide wooden desk reviewing documents. Without his jacket, the tattoos covering his forearms were fully visible—dark patterns and lettering that extended beneath his shirt.
A small portable crib stood beside the leather couch.
I stopped.
Dominic looked up.
“You said she would not be left unattended again.”
“You bought a crib?”
“I had one delivered.”
“Before you knew I would come?”
“You came.”
His certainty irritated me.
“I considered not coming.”
“No, you didn’t.”
I sat across from him.
“What is the new position?”
Dominic closed the folder in front of him.
“Office coordinator.”
I stared at him.
“I carry plates.”
“You also found three billing mistakes last month and corrected them before accounting noticed.”
“How do you know that?”
“I own the restaurant.”
“That doesn’t explain why you know what one waitress does.”
“I know what happens in my businesses.”
I looked at the paperwork on his desk.
“What would I be coordinating?”
“Schedules, vendor invoices, employee complaints and private event bookings.”
“I have no management experience.”
“You kept a child alive through grief, debt and three jobs.”
“I only have two jobs.”
“You clean offices on Sundays.”
My body stiffened.
“How do you know that?”
Dominic leaned back.
“I had Marco make sure you were not attempting to deceive me.”
“You investigated me?”
“I investigated everyone after discovering an infant in my building.”
Anger replaced fear.
“You had no right.”
“I had every right to determine whether the situation represented a threat.”
“Ava is seven months old.”
“She successfully breached a restricted floor.”
“That isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
He almost looked amused.
I rose from the chair.
“I appreciate that you didn’t fire me, but I’m not working for someone who searches through my life without permission.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
Most people probably did not speak to him that way.
I adjusted Ava against my hip and moved toward the door.
“Seventy thousand a year,” he said.
I stopped.
My waitress salary was less than half that.
“Health insurance,” he continued. “Paid childcare upstairs. Regular hours. No nights unless there is an emergency.”
I turned slowly.
“Why?”
“Because Belladonna has been losing money.”
“That restaurant is full every night.”
“Full restaurants can still lose money when someone is stealing.”
“Leonard?”
“Maybe. Perhaps others.”
“And you expect me to find out?”
“I expect you to notice what people believe you are too unimportant to understand.”
The words hit harder than I expected.
As a waitress, I had heard everything. Customers discussed affairs, bribes, business deals and betrayals while I stood inches away.
People rarely lowered their voices around someone they considered invisible.
“You want me to spy on employees.”
“I want you to manage the office and report financial inconsistencies.”
“That sounds like spying with paperwork.”
“Call it whatever allows you to sleep.”
I moved closer to his desk.
“What happens if I find something dangerous?”
“You tell me. You do nothing else.”
“And if the person stealing works for you outside the restaurant?”
A shadow crossed his face.
“You do not ask questions about business outside Belladonna.”
There it was.
The invisible wall everyone knew existed.
I looked at Ava.
Health insurance meant vaccinations without choosing between a doctor and groceries.
Paid childcare meant I would never hide her in a closet again.
Regular hours meant I could put her to bed at night.
“I want the agreement in writing,” I said.
Dominic raised an eyebrow.
“Everything. Salary, childcare, hours, medical benefits. I also want a guarantee that I won’t be expected to participate in anything illegal.”
Marco made a sound behind me that might have been a cough hiding a laugh.
Dominic stared at me.
“You negotiate aggressively.”
“I’ve spent eight months negotiating with utility companies.”
He opened a drawer and removed a legal pad.
“Anything else?”
“I want the employees to have a way to report harassment without going through management.”
He began writing.
“And overtime must be paid.”
He wrote that too.
“And nobody gets fired for staying home with a sick child.”
Dominic stopped.
“You are attempting to rewrite the entire employment policy.”
“The current policy made me hide my daughter between boxes of tablecloths.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he resumed writing.
“Done.”
By noon, I had signed a contract reviewed by one of Dominic’s attorneys.
By two, I was sitting in Leonard’s old office while Ava played upstairs with a licensed childcare worker named Nora.
By three, I found the first problem.
The produce invoices did not match the deliveries.
The restaurant had paid for premium imported goods that had never arrived.
At four, I found something worse.
Three employees had been listed for overtime payments they claimed they never received.
At five, I knocked on Dominic’s door.
“Come in.”
I placed the documents on his desk.
“You were right. Someone is stealing.”
He studied the invoices.
“How much?”
“At least eighty thousand dollars over six months.”
Dominic showed no surprise.
“There’s more,” I continued. “The vendor receiving the payments is Calder Imports.”
His eyes lifted.
The room suddenly felt colder.
“You recognize the name,” I said.
“Leave it alone.”
“You hired me to find irregularities.”
“You found one. Now you leave it alone.”
“Why?”
“Because Calder Imports is controlled by Victor Calder.”
“And who is Victor Calder?”
Dominic stood.
“Someone who will hurt you if he discovers you are looking at these records.”
Ava laughed in the room above us, the sound faint through the ceiling.
Dominic’s attention moved upward.
Then he looked at me.
“Take your daughter and go home.”
“Am I fired?”
“No. You are in danger.”
“Because I opened an invoice?”
“Because the person stealing from me now knows someone may discover him.”
I folded my arms.
“You said you knew everything that happened in your businesses.”
May you like
His face hardened.
“I know enough to recognize when someone is trying to start a war.”
