Chapter 10 - The Video Everyone Saw
The bakery incident might have remained private if not for a sixteen-year-old customer named Olivia Grant.
Olivia had been sitting near the front window when Noah and Ellie came inside.
She had recorded part of the encounter.
Not because she expected cruelty.
She had been filming a short video of the bakery’s pastry display for her social media page.
Vanessa’s voice had been captured clearly.
“Don’t come back unless you have enough money to buy something.”
Olivia posted the clip that evening.
She added one sentence.
They were seventeen cents short.
By the next morning, the video had been viewed fourteen thousand times.
By noon, it had passed ninety thousand.
Comments flooded Bellmont Bakery’s business page.
People were angry.
Some demanded Vanessa be fired.
Others accused the bakery of pretending to be community-focused while humiliating hungry children.
Richard’s phone rang nonstop.
He called Margaret from the corporate office.
“This has turned into a disaster.”
Margaret stood beside Grace’s hospital bed.
“Then handle it correctly.”
“My PR team wants a statement.”
“What statement?”
“That the employee acted outside company values.”
Margaret’s voice sharpened.
“Did she?”
Richard paused.
“What do you mean?”
“Was Vanessa ever trained to give day-old food away?”
“No.”
“Were employees told to remove people who might make paying customers uncomfortable?”
Silence.
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“Richard?”
“There is a customer-experience guideline.”
“A what?”
“It says employees may ask disruptive non-purchasing visitors to leave.”
“Those children were purchasing.”
“They were short.”
“Seventeen cents.”
Richard exhaled.
“Mom, I know how it sounds.”
“No.”
“You know how it is.”
Grace opened her eyes.
Margaret lowered her voice.
“Do not make Vanessa the only villain because it’s convenient.”
Richard said nothing.
Margaret continued.
“Find out who created that policy.”
Richard already knew.
He looked across his office.
On his desk was the employee handbook.
The customer-experience policy had been revised six years earlier.
Approved by regional operations director Claire Dalton.
Richard closed his eyes.
May you like
The old security case was no longer the only problem.
Claire’s fingerprints seemed to be everywhere.
