He Bet $10,000 the Black Waitress Couldn’t Speak German — Unaware She Was a Court Interpreter!
Chapter 6
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Nia shook her head. "That paragraph wasn't in my translation."Victor folded his arms. "Your name is on it.""Somebody changed the page.""Convenient."Nia reached for her phone. "I have the email."Victor laid down another sheet: an invoice made out in her name for $10,000 for "Language Consulting."Nia stared. "No."Owen looked at her."Victor says the check was an advance," Owen said."You were there!""I know what happened at the table.""Then why are you looking at that paper?"Victor spoke quietly. "I tried to help her. The bet was a joke. We discussed work afterward. I think we had a deal.""No, we didn't! We didn't!""And now an inaccurate translation appears, money has been paid, and our investor thinks she was misled," Victor said."You're the one who asked me to hide the difference!" Nia turned toward Celia. "You know that."Celia's lips parted. Victor looked at her. She said nothing.Nia opened her sent email and held the phone toward Owen. "Read it."He looked at the screen, then the printed page, then Victor. "There are different versions.""Yes. Mine, and the one somebody changed."Victor rose. "Until this is resolved, I don't want her handling anything connected to the project."Owen rubbed his forehead. Nia waited for him to say that she was an employee, not a thing Victor could move out of the way.Instead, Owen said, "Maybe you should take a few days."The room went quiet."A few days?" Nia asked. "Is that all?""Paid, if I can arrange it.""If?""Nia, I need time to understand this."She put her phone away. "You understood me when I was carrying plates.""That isn't fair.""No. It isn't."By that evening, a video from the wager was circulating. It showed Victor writing the check; it showed Nia accepting it; it did not show him proposing the challenge. The caption claimed a waitress had taken money to influence an international deal.Lily heard about it at school before Nia saw the post. Nia stopped walking."Did you trick somebody?" Lily asked."Who said that?""A boy. He said his father showed him."Cars passed beside them. Somewhere nearby, someone was laughing.Nia crouched. "Look at me. Are you okay? I did not trick anybody.""Then why did they say it?""Because they weren't there."That night, Marta's office paused Nia's upcoming assignments while it checked the disputed documents. The email was careful, polite, temporary; it still meant the work was gone.Nia sat at the kitchen table long after everyone else had fallen asleep. The refrigerator hummed beneath Lily's paper sign. She took the sign down.The next morning, Ruth knocked on her door carrying soup and a bag of bread."I didn't order anything," Nia said.