“You were… a bit.”
“More than a bit. It’s just…” Sam gestured to the others with his head. “Can I tell you later?”
I frowned. “Will it involve yelling?”
His eyes widened. “No. I have questions, but only if you want to answer them.”
That sounded fair. Of course, he had questions. “Later, then.”
“Later.” Sam’s smile softened. He hoisted himself up to sit next to me. “Are you sure you’re fine?”
Layla snorted. “Yes. He’s fine. His parents would have been here already if he wasn’t.”
Would Layla knowing these things ever stop surprising me?
“Now,” she continued, “can we move on, please?”
I nodded, while Sam mumbled, “Yes.”
“Finally,” said Rick, though he didn’t sound happy about it.
Riley said nothing as she sank onto the couch next to me and wiped her tears. Her beautiful chandeliers. She’d worked so hard on them. I put my hand over hers.
“I was just about to ask Jim here to explain to my friends from the Vocational Center why we might not be able to host the charity ball this year,” Layla said, her voice hard as steel.
I didn’t want to see the look on Jim’s face and kept my eyes on Layla instead. She seemed more relaxed than her voice implied.
“That’s not what I was doing. I was trying to stop them. These goddamn royals playing at being poor while we work ourselves to the bone.”
His hatred hit me like static across my skin. The legs of his chair thumped against the wooden floor as if he was struggling to get free.
I flinched.
Sam wrapped his arm around my back and whispered, “He can’t hurt you anymore.”
Layla tsk’d and took a step forward. “Those files are on my personal server. Only Rick and I have access to those.”
I stared at Rick. He knew?
Rick shook his head. “He couldn’t have accessed it from the hub.”
Only if it was protected by a NiraTech package, but I didn’t think Rick wanted me to point that out.
“Ha!” Jim burst out. “You just need to know where to look. Didn’t expect that from a vocational hire, did you?”
Layla’s face showed no reaction. “What I expected from you was to do the job I hired you for. Instead, you’ve been hacking my server, snooping around in other people’s private matters, and sabotaging my business.”
How did Layla stay so calm?
“Fuck privacy. There’ve been rumors you’re harboring royalty buzzing around for years. All I did was find the proof. This whole place is crawling with royals hiding behind aprons and keyboards. I bet you that pool boy was one of them, too.”
“What I do with my hotel and whom I hire is none of your business. There is room for everyone at the Renversé Hotel—royalty or otherwise.”
“Room for everyone? Do you know how many of us struggle to get jobs while they get everything they want served on a platter? They put my family on the streets to build their high-end flats. They worked the dangerous low-paid jobs no one else wanted to keep us fed. Yet, you give them shelter!”
His words hit me just as hard now as they had earlier.
“Jim.” Layla dragged a chair closer and sat down. “I understand you’re angry, but that doesn’t explain why you wanted to stop the charity ball.”
