“Specific to what?”
Kavita smiled sadly.
“People who weren’t European.”
Regina hired her for a six-month design residency.
The first collection would be judged on craftsmanship and sales.
Not charity.
Not optics.
Kavita insisted on that.
Regina agreed.
Elena became one of her strongest supporters.
The trainee who had once been ordered to reorganize inventory started learning staffing, client recovery, scheduling, and conflict management. She made mistakes almost immediately.
The first major one involved overpromising a custom-delivery date to a customer celebrating a twentieth anniversary.
Elena realized the mistake three hours later.
She looked terrified.
Regina asked what she planned to do.
“Call the customer.”
“And?”
“Tell the truth.”
“And?”
“Offer options.”
Regina nodded.
“Go.”
Elena did.
The customer was disappointed.
Then appreciative.
The order arrived two days later than originally promised but with free insured delivery and a handwritten note.
Elena returned to Regina afterward.
“I thought leadership meant preventing mistakes.”
Regina shook her head.
“That would require hiring gods.”
“What does it mean?”
“Making mistakes expensive enough to teach you without making them so terrifying you hide them.”
Elena wrote the sentence into a notebook.
Regina noticed.
“Where did you get that?”
Elena smiled.
“I started a leadership journal.”
Regina laughed.
“Dangerous.”
Meredith Sloan spent the first week furious.
The second week made her dangerous.
She began with professional complaints.
An attorney sent Caldwell Holdings a letter alleging wrongful termination and discriminatory retaliation.
Serena Bishop responded with documentation.
The complaint went nowhere.
Then Meredith began calling former clients.
She warned them Laurent’s “heritage standards” were being abandoned.
She told one collector the brand was moving toward mass-market positioning.
Another heard that inexperienced diversity hires were replacing trained jewelers.
None of that was true.
A few clients believed her anyway.
Then Meredith met Andrew Cole.
Andrew had once served as finance vice president at Caldwell Holdings and had been fired three years earlier after an internal audit found expense manipulation and undisclosed payments to a vendor owned by a close friend. He blamed Regina personally. Meredith knew him socially through luxury-retail events.
They met at a hotel bar.
Andrew listened to her story.
Then smiled.
“She embarrassed you.”
Meredith took a drink.
“She ambushed me.”
“No.”
Andrew shook his head.
“She made you embarrass yourself.”
Meredith glared.
“Whose side are you on?”
“Yours.”
He leaned closer.
“That distinction matters because anger without accuracy is useless.”
Meredith studied him.
“What do you want?”
“To help.”
“Why?”
Andrew smiled.
“Because Regina Caldwell believes every problem can be solved by being the smartest person in the room.”
Meredith did not know enough about him to recognize the obsession beneath the sentence.
She only recognized shared resentment.
That was enough.