A New Hire Booked My Luxury Napa Estate For $150 — So I Had Her Arrested Chapter 01
The company was planning a team retreat, and the new administrative intern, Tiffany Hayes, cornered me privately.
“Elena, I heard your family has a boutique estate up in Napa? For next week’s team building, let’s just go to your place for some picking.”
“We’re all colleagues, right? I’ll give you a $150-a-day stipend—consider it me throwing some business your way.”
My family’s estate, Willow Creek, is one of the finest boutique properties in all of Napa Valley.
Winery, cherry U-pick orchard, BBQ pavilion, glamping, private tasting room—the works.
Admission runs $80 per person, and the company has over fifty employees.
For $150, she wanted to freeload an entire corporate retreat.
I turned her down politely.
“Sorry, Tiffany. The estate’s already been booked out by another company for next week—full deposit paid. The dates are locked in.”
That same afternoon, Tiffany went straight to the company’s main Slack channel and Instagram Story and started bragging.
“Guys!! For team building this year, I locked down a private boutique estate in Napa!!”
“Sign up in the Slack thread—food, drinks, entertainment, all free. U-pick as much as you want, and you can bring family too!”
The comments filled up with coworkers gushing about how resourceful Tiffany was, how she’d found the perfect spot.
Even the boss, Mr. Preston, praised her for “going above and beyond.”
Scrolling through screen after screen of praise, I was speechless.
She wanted to freeload off my private property, use my estate to buff her own reputation and play the hero?
Not without my say-so.
…
At lunch, Tiffany messaged me again.
“It’s just a small estate. I’m giving you $150 a day—you’re not losing anything, Elena.”
My finger hovered over the screen for a few seconds before I typed back:
“It’s not about losing anything. The contract’s in writing—they paid a full deposit.”
“The cancellation penalty is triple the venue fee. I can’t afford that.”
The second I hit send, her call came through.
Her tone had shifted from earlier—all pretense dropped, laced with condescension.
“Elena, the company has invested in you for years. How can you be so ungrateful?”
I swallowed my anger and kept my voice level.
“The estate has been booked out ahead of time. I can’t take on another client—”
Before I could finish, Tiffany scoffed.
“That’s easy. Just kick them out.”
“Choosing your estate is me handing you a chance to make money. It’s decided.”
She hung up before I could respond.
Meanwhile, the boss was asking about the retreat in Slack, and she immediately pasted the promo photos from my estate’s official website.
One eagle-eyed employee screenshotted them and asked:
“Tiffany, this place is $80 per person per day. With this many of us, over two days that’s gonna cost a fortune, no?”
Tiffany replied instantly, complete with a smug little emoji:
“Relax, guys~ I already negotiated the price. $150 a day for the whole venue, food and drinks and everything included. Nobody pays a cent.”
The coworkers piled on with more praise:
“Tiffany you’re a queen you actually locked down a boutique estate like this?!”
“This place is basically impossible to book six months out, and she got it for $150 a day?!”
The boss chimed in, satisfied:
“Impressive, Tiffany. Saving the company this much money on your first month.”
I stared at the flood of messages, laughing bitterly.
Using my property to polish her image—it was disgusting.
I typed into the group chat:
“The estate is already booked next week. Pick a different location for the retreat.”
The moment my message went up, people started questioning me:
“Tiffany said she locked it in—Elena, what’s your problem? Not jealous that Tiffany’s more competent than you, are you?”
“Right? If a boutique estate can go for that cheap, then what’s up with those thousand-dollar-a-day events Elena used to book…”
“The more I think about it, the sketchier it gets. Elena’s not been taking kickbacks this whole time, has she?”
I was about to reply when Tiffany’s call came through again.
“Elena, what are you doing?! I already promised everyone!”
“Don’t tell me $150 isn’t enough for you? We’re colleagues—why are you being so petty about this?”
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