There was a pause in the big lobby as everyone stared at the paper Mr. Patel held. Some people came closer, trying to see better. Their faces showed that they were confused and worried."If they really signed this paper to cut our pay in half, then they are not helping us at all!" someone said loudly with anger. "I can't believe I trusted them!""They are trying to hide their mistakes. We should think about keeping our jobs, not about who gets to be the boss. Maybe we need new people in charge after all," another person spoke up.Gasps filled the room. The people were shocked and scared. The workers started to talk to each other in worried whispers.Mr. Patel looked at the crowd, his eyes serious. "Yes, that’s right," he said, pointing at the paper for everyone to see. "This paper says they want to cut your pay by half! They don't want to take the blame for the bad choices they made. They want to make you pay for their mistakes. Is this fair?"He looked around the room. "Think about i

Franklin stood in the entrance of the company building, his hands clenched tightly at his sides. Mr. Russell and Mr. Stephen were beside him, their faces lined with frustration and disbelief. The three of them had just been asked to leave the company by Mr. Thayer and the other board members, and now the weight of the situation hung heavily between them. Franklin cleared his throat, trying to find the right words to break the silence."Listen," Franklin began, his voice low and strained. "Both of you should go home. Get some rest. Let me handle this from here. It's all my fault anyway." His eyes flickered between the two men, searching for some sign of agreement.Mr. Russell shook his head. "No, Franklin, this isn't just on you. We all played a part in this mess. Besides, we're a team. We should face this together."Mr. Stephen sighed deeply, rubbing the back of his neck with a weary hand. "I don't like the idea of leaving you to deal with this alone, Franklin. But maybe you're right.

Mr. Hughes and Conor walked out to the lobby of the Empire State Hotel right when Franklin Miles had requested to meet him. Franklin looked really tired and his face was very serious. Mr. Hughes and Conor saw this and went over to him, both looking worried and concerned.Mr. Hughes, looking closely at Franklin, said, “Sir Franklin, you look very worn out. Did something bad happen? You don’t look like yourself.”Franklin sighed deeply and his shoulders slumped. He looked at Mr. Hughes and Conor, then began to talk. “It’s been a rough day. I went to Miles Empire on the request of my secretary to meet Mr. Russell and Mr. Stephen. I thought everything would be okay, but it turned out to be a disaster. We were kicked out of the company. They didn’t give us any reasons, and they didn’t offer any compensation. It was very humiliating. I didn’t expect this to happen.”Conor’s eyes grew wide with anger. His fists were clenched tightly as he said, “They just kicked you out with no reason? That’

Franklin Miles sat in one of the grand lounges of the Empire State Hotel, the soft hum of distant conversations and the faint clinking of glasses filling the air. The room, with its polished wooden accents and gleaming chandeliers, had become a familiar space to him over the past two weeks. The once-bustling corporate life he had known was now a memory, replaced by this more subdued, but no less challenging role of running a hotel that was transforming faster than he could have ever anticipated.Mr. Hughes walked in, carrying a thick stack of reports under his arm. Franklin noticed the way the older man moved—purposeful, steady, and always slightly hunched over, as though carrying the invisible weight of the hotel on his back. Hughes had been a pillar of reliability for Franklin, and it was thanks to his guidance that the hotel had started to thrive."Franklin," Hughes said, his tone carrying both respect and familiarity. He placed the stack of papers on the large oak table between th

Casey Ford sat across from her father, Bill, in the spacious dining room, the soft hum of distant traffic filtering in through the large windows. A stack of legal documents lay scattered across the polished wooden table between them, contracts, and deeds among them. The atmosphere between father and daughter felt a bit strained, a weight lingering over their conversation, though neither had addressed it directly.For weeks, Casey had been pestering her father about buying the Empire State Hotel. It had become almost an obsession, though Bill couldn’t quite figure out what had sparked her interest in such a massive, complicated purchase. Today, though, they were finally sitting down to discuss it."You’ve been awfully persistent about this hotel," Bill remarked, flipping through the papers with a measured look. "It’s not exactly a small investment, Casey. Hotels like these come with a lot of responsibility."Casey straightened up in her chair, her eyes bright with excitement. “I know,