Chapter 1

I'd just come out of a meeting with a few of my executives about relocating the company.

That was when my cousin Clement Armstrong showed up.

He ran a cafeteria on the ground floor of our building.

Most of his customers were our people.

"Look, it's already the end of the month. Might as well go ahead and order next month's meal vouchers now."

"And that twenty-dollar voucher you've been ordering needs to go up. Let's make it thirty."

I couldn't help frowning.

"Clement, a lot of my employees have been complaining that the portions at your cafeteria keep getting smaller."

"A twenty-dollar combo plate, two meats and two sides, isn't even enough to fill them up, and now you want to raise it to thirty?"

He just spread his hands and sighed once I'd finished.

"What can I do? Ingredient and labor costs keep going up."

"Anyway, business is good at your company. It's not like you're short on the money."

That actually made me laugh.

"In that case, starting next month the company won't be ordering vouchers from your cafeteria anymore."

We'd recently bought a new office building downtown.

I'd been planning to hand the cafeteria contract over to Clement.

Not anymore.

He froze for a second.

Then his face darkened.

"Carly Pruitt, if you stop ordering from my cafeteria, where are your thousands of employees supposed to eat?"

"You know as well as I do, out here there's my big cafeteria and a handful of little diners, that's it."

"And this place is so far out. Delivery's a pain and it costs more too."

I gave him a cold look.

He clearly thought he had me over a barrel.

"That's not your concern," I said.

Clement scoffed, a cold smile on his face.

"Fine, fine, we'll see about that."

"Next month your people can go hungry for all I care."

Then he stormed off in a huff.

That evening my mother called out of nowhere.

"Carly, why aren't you ordering vouchers from your cousin's cafeteria anymore? He came and complained to me about it."

I was annoyed, but I explained patiently anyway.

"He's never satisfied. I can't keep letting him have his way."

She just made an impatient sound.

"Enough. He said his costs keep rising, so a price bump is normal."

"Your company's doing well, isn't it? Why fight him over something like this?"

"Just hurry up and order the vouchers. You know what your aunt Bertha is like..."

That did it. I hung up on her.

Mom, after everything Bertha put you through back then, you're still going to swallow it and stay quiet?

By noon the next day.

I got an unexpected call from Clement.

"Ha, come see for yourself. My cafeteria's just as packed today!"

"Carly, did you really think that without your company my cafeteria would have no business?"

He was practically dripping with smugness.

After I hung up, I sent my assistant Cecil Finch down to see what was going on.

He was back before long.

"A lot of them are our own people."

That caught me off guard.

"Why would everyone still be eating at the cafeteria?"

This month I'd had accounting deposit the meal stipend straight onto the employees' paychecks.

"The cafeteria used to play favorites. When we paid with vouchers, they'd deliberately give us less food."

"Now everyone just scans and pays, so the cafeteria can't tell who's who, and the portions are actually normal again."

Cecil said it with a grin.

I didn't know whether to laugh or shake my head.

"Then let them be. It's no loss to us anyway."

But that evening.

Clement called again.

"Carly, what's going on? Are your people still coming to eat at my cafeteria?"

"My take today is down by half. Not even twenty thousand!"

"I'm telling you right now, you're not to let them eat at my cafeteria anymore!"

It only took a moment to figure out what had happened.

Now that the cafeteria couldn't use the vouchers to tell who was one of ours and shortchange the portions,

he was serving the same ingredients but selling far fewer combo plates.

So now he was hurting over it, feeling like he'd taken a big loss.

"That's not something I can control," I said.

It had been his idea in the first place, swapping the company's meal stipend for vouchers at his cafeteria.

That had let him all but monopolize our employees' lunches, dinners too.

And now he wanted to forbid my employees from eating there.

There was no logic to it.

"Fine, fine, we'll just see about that!"

Clement hung up, furious.

Cecil came rushing in.

"There's a fight at the cafeteria downstairs. They've smashed the place up!"

My heart jumped. "Are they our people?"

"I don't know yet. I hear it's total chaos down there right now."

I grabbed my phone.

"Come on, let's go take a look!"