Chapter 7 - What the Workers Said in the Ballroom
Naomi Briggs arrived at the church without a coat. She had left hers in a taxi because she was afraid of being followed and had climbed out two blocks early. Odessa wrapped a spare cardigan around her shoulders and poured her coffee.
"You're late," Odessa said.
"Sixteen years," Naomi replied. "I know."
Naomi had been the hotel's controller during the original settlement. After Iris's dismissal, she was ordered to transfer the settlement funds to a contractor account for "distribution and administrative handling." She questioned the destination. An executive told her a lawyer had approved it. When workers complained that the amounts were wrong, Naomi wrote an internal memo. Shortly afterward, she left the industry.
"I should've taken the memo to somebody outside the company," she said. "I was afraid they'd sue me. Then years passed, and I told myself it wasn't my job anymore."
August asked whether she still had a copy.
Naomi unfolded a worn letter from her purse. It was addressed to the hotel board, stamped received but never included in August's briefing file. Attached was the original account name of the contractor that later became Evergreen.
Celia examined the documents. "This supports a very specific line of inquiry," she said. "It doesn't prove every transfer was improper. We can trace these accounts against actual disbursements."
"It proves somebody was warned," Naomi said. "That's why I came."
The Northbridge board convened an emergency session that afternoon in the Sterling House ballroom, under three chandeliers and a row of decorative brass wall sconces. Margaret objected to letting workers attend the initial meeting. Celia proposed a separate, documented listening session immediately afterward and ensured the workers' representatives could submit statements directly to independent reviewers.
August arrived early and found Andre standing beneath the sign WE TAKE CARE OF OUR OWN. The sign had been moved from the corporate reception without even changing its display stand.
"You could have had somebody take that down," Andre said.
"I thought about it."
"Leave it up. I want them to read it while I talk."
Margaret took the microphone first. She said the hotel faced malicious allegations, a domestic dispute, and "misunderstandings about staffing protocols." She defended her treatment of Maya as a matter of security. When asked why she had characterized a nine-year-old guest as cleaning staff, she said she could not be expected to know everyone's relatives.
Andre stood. "She didn't have to be related to a billionaire for you to treat her like a child."
A few people murmured. He waited for silence.
"I've worked here twelve years. The white guests who ask to see my employee entrance get a tour. When my mother came to bring me my inhaler last year, she was told to wait outside because 'people like her' weren't allowed near the lounge. I reported it. My shifts got cut."
Renee confirmed the schedule change. A former housekeeper described being called "one of the good ones" when she accepted extra unpaid work. A white banquet server said managers had asked her to take pictures of guests while Black staff were told to stay out of photographs.
Lena had planned to appear only on video. Instead, after speaking with her care team and Joelle, she came in person and sat near the exit, ready to leave if she felt unwell. Maya stayed at Joelle's house with a neighbor she knew and liked. Lena wanted her daughter to understand that courage did not require a child to attend an adult confrontation.
"I am not here because I want a billionaire to rescue me," Lena said into the microphone. "I'm here because I tried to reconcile a fund that belongs to workers, and my supervisor treated the questions as a threat. I'm also here because my daughter asked for help in this lobby, and somebody decided she didn't deserve it. Those are two problems. Fixing one doesn't erase the other."
August sat motionless. It was the speech he'd needed to hear when Iris was alive.
Gregory presented a chart purporting to show that Evergreen had provided service-charge administration and employee benefits. Celia asked him to identify an actual payment reaching Andre's account. Gregory said the documents were too voluminous to review in public.
"Then send them to the independent accountants," she replied.
"That isn't necessary."
"The board will decide what's necessary."
The independent reviewer had already identified transfers routed from the service fund to an account used to pay Evergreen's management fee. That fee increased at the end of each accounting quarter, just as workers' service-share payments came due. Celia requested authority to examine the vendor's ownership and related-party payments.
The board approved preservation of relevant records, an external investigation, and temporary removal of Margaret and Gregory from roles where they could influence witnesses or records while the findings were assessed. It was not a conviction. Workers understood the difference and demanded updates in writing.
Outside the ballroom, Margaret cornered Lena beside a display of the hotel's architectural models.
"You think they'll give you my job?" she hissed.
"I don't want your job."
"Then what do you want?"
"For people to stop stealing the money we've already earned. And for you to say my daughter's name like she belongs in the room."
Margaret opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
August approached but let Lena finish her own conversation. When Margaret walked away, Lena swayed with fatigue. He offered his arm. She accepted it for the walk to the chair and no farther.
"Thank you for letting me talk," she said.
"I should have done that sixteen years ago."
Celia came through the ballroom doors holding a newly delivered corporate filing.
"We found Evergreen's beneficial owner," she said. "It isn't just Gregory."
Lena read the first name. Margaret Vale was listed through a family investment company.
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The second name was Curtis Bell.
He had married her after he began receiving a share of the fund she was trying to expose.
