$30 for Michelin?

Chapter 4 The Three-Million-Dollar Bill

The entire hall went dead silent.

It was as if someone had hit mute. Not a single person made a sound.

Sterling's face turned an ugly shade of gray. He snatched the bill from Sophie, his hand trembling violently as his eyes swept over the total.

"Three million, one hundred seventy thousand?" His voice shot up. "Are you f*****g insane? You served us a few plates of fish, and now you want more than three million dollars?"

Sophie's smile did not waver. "Sir, every charge is clearly itemized on the bill."

She lowered her eyes to the receipt and read in a calm voice. "Bluefin tuna otoro, eight thousand eight hundred dollars per portion. You ordered fifty portions. Imperial Moon caviar, twelve hundred dollars per gram. You ordered one bowl, totaling eight hundred grams. Romanée-Conti, one hundred fifty thousand dollars per bottle. You opened ten bottles. Ivory Vale white truffle, twenty thousand dollars per portion. You ordered fifty portions."

Then she looked up. "Every dish and every bottle was confirmed with your signature."

Sophie placed a thick stack of order confirmations on the table. Every page bore Sterling's signature.

Sterling stared at his own name on the documents. The color drained from his face, and his legs gave out beneath him. A second later, he collapsed to the floor.

Genevra shrieked. "No way. This is impossible. Rowan, you've lost your mind over money. We already paid thirty dollars."

The other classmates began to panic.

"Rowan, this is extortion."

"We agreed on thirty dollars for all-you-can-eat. Where did this three-million-dollar bill come from?"

"I'm reporting you to Consumer Affairs."

I walked over to Sterling and looked down at him. "Thirty dollars for all-you-can-eat?"

I gave a faint smile. "Who exactly promised you that?"

Sterling seized on the excuse and snapped his head up. "I posted the announcement in the group chat, and you never objected. Silence means consent."

I opened the chat history and held my phone screen in front of his face. "Read it carefully. I sent three words: 'I never agreed.' You forced your way into my restaurant, ordered whatever you wanted, and signed for every item yourself. Now that you've eaten your fill, you want to walk out without paying?"

I let out a cold laugh. "That three million, one hundred seventy thousand dollars gets paid in full today. Not one cent less. Until the bill is settled, no one leaves."

My gaze swept over the room. The temperature in the hall seemed to drop. More than fifty people looked at one another. For a moment, no one dared to speak.

Then Holden, the man who had smeared caviar onto a brioche roll earlier, rushed forward. "Rowan, are you broke or something? We're all classmates. Do you really have to take it this far? How much could this food possibly cost? Three million dollars? You might as well rob a bank."

I turned to him. "The caviar you just ate was beluga sturgeon roe. Less than a hundred kilograms are produced worldwide each year. The wine you drank came from one of Burgundy's top estates. So you tell me, Holden. How much should it cost?"

Holden opened his mouth, but no words came out.

Sterling struggled up from the floor, still clinging to his last shred of arrogance.

"Rowan, stop trying to scare us. A menu without prices is deceptive pricing. One call to Consumer Affairs, and this place gets shut down tomorrow."

I watched his bluster with cold amusement. "Then call them. Call them right now."

Sterling froze. He clearly had not expected me to stand my ground. He pulled out his phone and pretended to dial, but his finger hovered over the call button. In the end, he never pressed it.

At exactly the right moment, Sophie stepped forward with a thick menu in her hand.

"Sir, this is our restaurant's official menu. Every price is listed clearly, and the menu is fully compliant with city regulations. When you ordered earlier, you said looking at prices was tacky and demanded that we remove the priced menus. Before each dish was served, I also confirmed the rarity and price range of the ingredients with you. The entire exchange was recorded by our surveillance system. Would you like to hear it?"

Sterling's face drained of color. He hurled his phone to the floor and shouted, "Rowan, you set me up. You planned this trap from the beginning."

I ignored him and turned to the other classmates. "Sterling signed for the entire order. If you don't want to be held jointly liable, pay your share now. Split evenly, that comes to sixty-three thousand, four hundred dollars per person. Once your share is paid in full, you may leave at any time."

The crowd erupted.

"Sixty-three thousand? I only make fifty grand a year."

"I'm not paying. Why should I? Sterling was the one who brought us here."

"Exactly. Go after Sterling. He tricked us."

The same people who had been calling one another old friends just minutes earlier turned on each other in an instant. They crowded around Sterling and jabbed their fingers in his face.

"Sterling, didn't you say it was thirty dollars for all-you-can-eat?"

"You scammer. You wanted to show off, and now you're dragging all of us down with you."

"Pay the bill yourself. Don't drag us into your mess."

Genevra threw herself in front of Sterling and screamed like a fishwife. "You people have no shame. Why didn't any of you say that while you were eating? Now that things have gone wrong, you're dumping everything on my husband?"

Cornered by the crowd, Sterling shoved aside the woman standing in front of him. "Get lost. I'm broke."

Then he turned to me and shouted, "Rowan, I'm not paying a single cent today. What are you going to do about it?"

He rolled up his sleeves and yelled at the male classmates around him.

"Guys, she only has a few guards. We rush the door together, and let's see who dares to stop us."

The men exchanged uncertain looks. Then, as if they had made up their minds, they started pushing toward the exit.

Ten guards stepped forward at once and formed a solid wall in front of the door.

The tension in the hall snapped tight.

In the chaos, Genevra deliberately stumbled backward and slammed into the display case beside her.

A sharp crash rang through the hall. The rare antique porcelain vase inside the case toppled over and shattered across the floor. It was worth three hundred thousand dollars.

Genevra dropped to the ground, clutching her stomach as she wailed. "My stomach! It hurts! The security guards hit a pregnant woman! Somebody help me!"

I did not even blink. "Sophie, add the porcelain vase to the bill and recalculate the total."

Sterling seized the chaos as his chance. He lunged toward the door, pointed at me, and shouted, "Rowan, you b***h. You mess with me, and I'll f*****g kill you the second I get out of here."

The moment those words left his mouth, a sharp siren sounded outside. Red and blue lights flashed against the glass doors.

Three police cars were parked at the entrance, their red and blue lights flashing against the glass doors.

Six officers pushed their way inside.

The senior officer at the front swept his gaze across the hall and asked, "Who called the police?"

I raised my hand. "I did."

Sterling froze. Then he pointed at me with a trembling finger. "You... you actually called the cops?"

I looked at him coldly. "Refusal to pay, property damage, disorderly conduct, livestream defamation, and threats of violence. Sterling, you asked me what I could do to you, so here's your answer: detention, prosecution, and restitution. Not a single one of you walks away from this."