“The chair struck me,” Catherine repeated. “Your man caused the accident.”
Dominic Vale stared at her.
“Is that your excuse?”
Catherine removed her apron and placed it on the table.
“No. It is the truth. I will replace the wine, but I will not stand here while you call me an animal.”
Terrified of angering Dominic, Martin Bell fired her immediately. The diners watched in silence as Catherine collected her coat.
Before reaching the door, she noticed Wade leaning across Dominic’s untouched second glass. While everyone was distracted, he poured several drops from a tiny vial into the wine.
Dominic raised the glass.
“Don’t drink that!” Catherine shouted.
She rushed across the dining room and knocked it from his hand. Wade claimed she was seeking revenge, but Catherine pointed toward the mirror behind the bar.
“The security camera above it recorded everything.”
Nico searched Wade and discovered the vial inside his sleeve. It contained a poison designed to make Dominic’s death resemble sudden heart failure. Wade had secretly been working for a rival organization.
Dominic finally understood. Wade had pushed his chair backward intentionally. The broken bottle—and Catherine’s public humiliation—had created the perfect distraction while he prepared the poisoned drink.
Wade was handed over to the authorities along with evidence of his betrayal.
In front of the same people who had witnessed his cruelty, Dominic turned to Catherine.
“You told the truth, and I punished you for it. I insulted you for something you did not cause, yet you still saved my life. I was wrong.”
He offered her money and a better job.
Catherine refused both.
“I don’t want to be paid for my silence. If you truly regret what happened, stop using your power to make innocent people feel small.”
Her words affected Dominic more deeply than Wade’s betrayal. Over the following year, he abandoned his illegal operations, testified against several former associates, and rebuilt his companies as legitimate businesses.
Catherine returned to the nursing program she had left years earlier to care for her sick father. Dominic later found her working at a neighborhood clinic he had begun supporting anonymously.
“May I buy you coffee?” he asked.
“One coffee,” she replied. “The moment you comment on my body, I leave.”
“I was planning to talk about your courage.”
Catherine accepted—not because he was wealthy or feared, but because he had finally learned that respect could never be demanded.
Dominic had once claimed that no one could love a woman like her. In the end, he was the one who had to become worthy of her love.
