Chapter 15 - The Video Nobody Expected
Months passed.
The original gala video remained online.
But another clip eventually spread even faster.
It wasn't professionally filmed.
A guest recorded Vanessa helping an elderly housekeeper push a heavy linen cart through the lobby.
Someone recognized her.
“Isn't that the champagne woman?”
Vanessa heard.
She didn't respond.
She kept pushing.
The video received millions of views.
Reporters asked Blackwood Holdings for comment.
We gave none.
Vanessa gave none.
That mattered.
She finished six months in the employee development program.
Then she left.
Not because she failed.
Because she had decided to start a nonprofit providing legal and emergency assistance to hospitality workers facing workplace abuse.
She asked me to join the board.
I declined.
“This needs to be yours.”
She nodded.
“I understand.”
At the door, she stopped.
“Do you forgive me?”
I thought carefully.
“I don't think forgiveness is something you're owed because you improved.”
Her face fell slightly.
“But I don't hate you.”
She waited.
“And I hope you keep becoming someone who wouldn't recognize the woman in that red dress.”
Vanessa smiled through tears.
“So do I.”
We shook hands.
Then she left.
I thought that closed the chapter.
It didn't.
May you like
Because the next morning, my father collapsed in his office.
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