Millionaire's Wife Humiliated the Waitress — Her Epic Response Silenced the Room!
Chapter 2
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"Catherine, ma'am.""Catherine." Evelyn smiled without warmth. "Perhaps if you could read a room, you would know how to serve one."Conversation at the nearby tables began to fade. Catherine kept cleaning. Evelyn reached for the restaurant's thick French wine list."Actually, let's see how well you can read."Howard frowned. "Evelyn."She ignored him. She pushed the wine list toward Catherine. "Read the description of the older Château Margaux vintage properly."Catherine looked at her. "I can read, Mrs. Hayes."Evelyn gave a quiet laugh. "Then prove it. Or is literacy too much to expect from someone carrying plates?"For several seconds, Catherine heard only the piano across the dining room. She had been insulted before: customers had snapped their fingers at her, blamed her for food she had not cooked, complained about prices she did not set, and spoken about her as though she were invisible. Most nights she swallowed it; every shift paid another bill. But Evelyn's words stayed inside her.Literacy.Catherine thought of the enormous legal textbooks beside her bed. She remembered studying in hospital corridors while Julia slept after treatment. She remembered Professor Martin Cole returning a research paper covered with praise because Catherine had found a conflict between two international regulations that several attorneys had overlooked. None of that mattered to Evelyn. To Evelyn, the apron had already answered every question about who Catherine was.Catherine opened the wine list. She read the requested French passage aloud with careful, natural pronunciation. Then she translated it into English. Several diners turned toward the alcove.Evelyn's smile weakened. "Memorized," she said. "Anyone who works here long enough could memorize that."Catherine closed the book. "Would you like another recommendation?"The question was polite, which somehow made Evelyn angrier."No, I would like competent service."Harold Lawson had remained silent. He watched Catherine with an expression she could not read. Howard seemed embarrassed, but his eyes kept drifting toward the leather folder Catherine had protected from the water.Evelyn noticed. "This," she said, reaching for it, "is real reading."Harold raised an eyebrow. "Mrs. Hayes..."But Evelyn had already opened the folder.Howard leaned forward. "Those are the final financing documents.""I know," she pulled out a page. "I reviewed them this afternoon."Harold's expression changed. "You reviewed the final annexes?""Of course."Howard looked at her. "You told me everything was acceptable.""It is." Evelyn smiled confidently. "The liability is limited to the Boston properties. Harold gets security, you keep control, and the financing closes."Catherine began to step away. Then something on the page caught her eye. She saw only part of the document, but the structure was familiar: the heading, cross-references, and footnotes reminded her of materials she had studied during Professor Cole's comparative finance research. One sentence in particular looked wrong.Evelyn kept speaking. "I checked the foreign language schedules, too."Harold folded his hands. "You personally checked them?""Yes."Catherine looked again. The English paragraph appeared to limit the lender's recovery to designated properties, but a Swedish footnote incorporated another schedule by reference. Catherine's heart began beating faster. She leaned slightly closer.There it was: a cross-default mechanism. The clause did not merely give Harold's firm rights over the properties being financed. Under certain conditions, a missed payment could trigger claims over voting equity in Howard's holding company.Catherine looked at Harold; he was watching her now.Evelyn noticed. "Why are you staring?"Catherine straightened. "Mr. Hayes."Howard looked up.