Then she approached.
Arthur leaned forward.
“Would you like to know something about Santa?”
The little girl nodded.
“Sometimes Santa has a difficult day too.”
She studied his face.
“Are you okay?”
“I think so.”
“That man was mean.”
Arthur nodded.
“He made a very poor choice.”
The little girl looked at the scattered presents.
“Are you still going to give people their Christmas gifts?”
Something tightened inside Arthur’s chest.
“Absolutely.”
She smiled.
And for several seconds, everything almost felt normal again.
Then Emily’s phone rang.
She answered.
Listened.
Her expression changed.
“What do you mean, suspend the display?”
Arthur watched her carefully.
“Who authorized that?”
Silence.
Emily looked toward him.
“No. He didn’t start the confrontation.”
Another pause.
“There’s video evidence!”
Her voice rose.
“Then review the whole video!”
The call ended.
Emily stood motionless.
Arthur understood before she spoke.
“They’re shutting us down.”
“Temporarily,” Emily said.
“How temporarily?”
“They haven’t decided.”
Arthur looked toward the Christmas tree.
At the velvet chair.
At the presents.
At the line of families waiting behind the decorative rope.
“How many children are scheduled tomorrow?”
“Forty-six.”
“And the charity deliveries?”
Emily swallowed.
“Three hundred and twenty-seven children are receiving gifts through the Red Door Project this year.”
Arthur stared at her.
“Those children aren’t losing Christmas because some idiot wanted to make a video.”
Emily didn’t answer.
She had just received another notification.
Then another.
And another.
Derek’s social media account had posted a video.
Eleven seconds long.
The caption was simple.
MALL SANTA ATTACKS PROFESSIONAL MMA FIGHTER!
The clip began with Santa throwing Derek.
It showed Derek crashing onto the carpet.
Then it cut directly to Santa sweeping him into the Christmas presents.
Nothing before that.
No shove.
No first punch.
No warning.
No repeated attempts to walk away.
Just an old man in a Santa suit throwing a professional fighter across the floor.
Within twenty minutes, the video had more than three hundred thousand views.
By lunchtime, it had passed a million.
And Derek Sloan had begun telling the world that he had been assaulted by an unstable elderly employee.
