Oliver Whitney's face changed. "Impossible! I'm the boss of Cecily Joyner, your little owner. I told her to book the whole place. She wouldn't hand it off to somebody else."
The server kept smiling, but her tone lost its softness.
"The owner of this restaurant is Vivian Ashford. Cecily is only her daughter. She has no authority to make that call. And the private booking was confirmed a month in advance. We posted the notice on our website."
Oliver's face darkened. He turned and snapped at Aileen Dickerson.
"Call Cecily. Tell her to clear this place out and come greet us in herself!"
Aileen hurried to dial me.
The first time, I didn't pick up.
The second time, I hung up on her.
The third time, Oliver sent me a voice message directly.
【Cecily Joyner, you have three minutes to get over here, or I'll make sure your mother's restaurant doesn't stay open another day.】
I didn't reply.
He tagged me in the group chat.
【Cecily Joyner, what's going on? The whole department's here, plus family members. Is this how you arranged it? Get over here and bring us in.】
A few coworkers tagged me too.
【Cecily Joyner, everybody came out for your family's restaurant. This is pretty low, isn't it? It's just one meal. Don't make us look bad.】
【Right, what's with playing dead? We all agreed on this. If you won't come out, we're going in ourselves.】
The messages dropped into silence.
Oliver's face went black as the bottom of a pot. He shoved the server blocking the door aside.
"Everybody in. Let's see who dares stop me!"
At his word, more than a hundred people charged in like a stampede.
In seconds every empty seat was taken.
The manager rushed forward to stop them and Oliver kicked him flat to the floor.
"You blind piece of garbage. I'm the boss of your little owner, which makes me your boss. Who gave you the right to defy your boss?"
The manager clutched his stomach and explained patiently.
"Sir, there really is a private booking tonight. The client spent a million dollars on this setup. If you ruin it, you'll have to cover the full cost…"
"Cover this!"
He went over and slapped the manager across the face.
"What the hell are you, talking back to me? I'm Cecily's boss. What I say goes here!"
He threw the printed menu in the manager's face.
"Serve everything on this menu. Leave off a single dish and I'll have you thrown out of this restaurant!"
My mother called me, her voice shaking with anger.
"Cece, what do we do? Should I call the police?"
I looked at Oliver's face on the live stream, arrogance cranked to its absolute peak, and let out a cold laugh.
"Not yet. Give him whatever he asks for."
Ten minutes later the food started coming out, one course after another.
Aileen snapped photo after photo of the big Maine lobster and posted them to show off.
【Family, thanks to our director we get to eat a top-tier feast like this. The Maine lobster tastes incredible. Long live the director.】
The coworkers all photographed the dishes and posted them, showing off and singing his praises.
Fine wine and fine food swept away like a storm, and then they started boxing up the leftovers.
They even took the proposal balloons from the private booking.
When they reached the door and tried to leave, a row of tall, broad security guards in uniform blocked their way.
The manager carried the bill over and held it out to Oliver.
"Sir, tonight's tab comes to six hundred and eighty thousand, plus a hundred thousand for the private booking and two hundred thousand in penalty fees. That's nine hundred and eighty thousand. Cash or card?"
