"You think you can just walk away and play the hero, Thomas?" Richard sneered, holding up his own phone. "Did you really think I didn't have a backup plan?"
Chloe looked at Thomas in pure horror. "Miller's Corner... The diner. It was just bought by a shell company. They fired everyone. Victoria, Kevin... everyone. The building is being demolished tomorrow."
The rain had stopped, but the bitter wind off Lake Michigan howled as Chloe and Thomas pulled up to Miller’s Corner Diner.
The neon "OPEN" sign was dark. The windows were papered over.
Sitting on the wet curb in front of the diner were Victoria, Kevin, and the rest of the kitchen staff. Victoria held a cardboard box filled with framed photos and coffee mugs. The strict, unyielding manager looked completely broken.
Chloe rushed out of the car. "Victoria! What happened?"
Victoria looked up, her eyes red and swollen. "Ten minutes ago, corporate suits walked in. They said the building was purchased by a private equity firm. They gave us five minutes to clear out our lockers. It's over, Chloe. The diner is gone."
Thomas leaned heavily on his cane as he stepped onto the sidewalk. His face was a mask of cold fury.
He knew exactly who was behind this. Richard Dale. The board had moved with terrifying speed, purchasing the property through a shell company simply to punish Thomas and terrorize Chloe. It was a petty, vicious flex of billionaire power.
Thomas pulled out his black smartphone. "I am calling my brokers. I will buy the holding company. I will buy the entire block if I have to. I am going to bury Richard Dale."
"No."
Thomas stopped dialing. He looked at Chloe, stunned. "No? Chloe, thirteen people just lost their livelihoods because of me."
"And you think throwing millions of dollars at the problem fixes it?" Chloe stepped closer, her voice fierce. "That is exactly what your brother did. He threw money at problems to make them disappear. We are not doing it your way, Thomas. We are not buying justice."
Thomas frowned, entirely out of his element. "Then what do you propose we do?"
Chloe looked at the boarded-up windows of Miller's Corner. She looked at Victoria, at Kevin, at the people who had become her makeshift family.
"Richard Dale wants the bricks?" Chloe asked, a slow, dangerous smile spreading across her face. "Let him have the bricks. We don't need his building."
"We don't have jobs," Kevin muttered from the curb. "We don't have a kitchen."
"We have something better," Chloe said. She pulled out her own phone. "We have the truth."
Chloe switched her phone to video mode. She stood in front of the dark, boarded-up diner. She didn't use a script. She didn't use a filter. She just pressed record.
She told the internet exactly what happened. She talked about the four-dollar meal. She talked about getting fired for being kind. She talked about the billionaire who tried to buy the diner, and the vindictive corporate shark who destroyed it just to prove a point.
"They think money makes them untouchable," Chloe said to the camera, her eyes burning with defiance. "So let's prove them wrong. We are going to build a new diner. Not owned by billionaires. Owned by us. Owned by the community."
She posted the video.
"Now what?" Victoria asked skeptically.
Chloe locked her phone screen. "Now, we wait."
Three hours later, Chloe’s phone chirped. Then it buzzed. Then it began to ring, vibrating violently as notifications flooded the screen in a relentless, unstoppable wave.