He was showing her why she should. Lisa pushed her plate away a little and exhaled. "What happens now?" Marco didn't answer right away. Instead, he reached into a folder on the table and slid a stack of printed screenshots toward her.
"This." Lisa blinked. "What is that?" "Your face," he said. "Online."
Her stomach dropped. Her own image stared back at her from a dozen angles, all frozen mid-humiliation. Olivia laughing. Her friend filming. Lisa looking stunned, hurt, small.
Words overlaid on some of them. Waitress attacks senator's daughter. Violent diner worker. Goes after minor. "Are you serious?"
Lisa whispered. "I didn't touch her." "Nobody cares about the truth," Marco said calmly. "They care about who posts first." Her hands shook.
I didn't do anything wrong. "I know." Her throat tightened so hard it hurt. That's what did it. Not the protection, not the money, not the SUV, the clothes, the guarded building, the private elevator.
That, "I know." Her eyes burned. She blinked fast, furious at herself. Great. So, I'm violent diner trash now in front of the whole internet.
Marco's voice dropped. "You're not trash." She forced out a laugh. "Yeah? Tell that to the comment section."
"I don't care about the comment section." "I do," she snapped louder than she meant to. She swallowed and dropped her voice. That's my face. That's my job.
That's my life. You walk into places and people shut up. People don't do that for me. I don't get to just exist in the background anymore. You understand that, right?
You lit up a spotlight on me. Something dark flickered in his eyes. Not anger at her. Anger at himself. He nodded once.
"You're right." She blinked. She hadn't expected him to agree. He leaned back in his chair and said in that same quiet, controlled voice, "Then we adjust." Her breath caught.
"Adjust how?" "You're not going back to the diner." Her heart lurched. "What?" It's not safe, he said.
Then it's not done. He'll either try to scare you again or pay you to lie or set you up to look like you're unstable so nobody believes you. I'm not letting you walk into that. Her pulse hammered. "You can't just tell me to quit my job."