“No equity.”
“No land.”
“No security beyond wages.”
“I had spent my whole life standing beside wealth that never once confused me with someone who belonged to it.”
Victoria’s anger changed.
Not softened.
Clarified.
“So you decided to steal.”
Thomas looked down.
“At first, I told myself I was taking what he should have given.”
“How much was ‘what he should have given’?”
“Fifty thousand?”
“One hundred?”
“When did that turn into framing people?”
His face changed.
Victoria saw answer.
“Daniel wasn’t first.”
Thomas said nothing.
“Elena Ruiz.”
Silence.
“The sapphire earrings.”
Thomas closed his eyes.
“Did you take them?”
“Yes.”
Victoria gripped the edge of desk.
“And you told me she had been in the room.”
“Yes.”
“You let me fire her.”
“Yes.”
“And Andre?”
Thomas whispered:
“Yes.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
Victoria stared as though he had become a stranger while sitting in the same body.
Thomas continued.
“After first few, it became easier.”
“That is your explanation?”
“No.”
“It is truth.”
“I knew who you trusted.”
“I knew what people expected.”
“A maid around jewelry.”
“A valet around a watch.”
“A contractor around cash.”
“A mechanic around a bracelet.”
Victoria almost could not breathe.
“You chose people nobody would believe over you.”
Thomas met her eyes.
“Yes.”
The answer was worse than denial.
Aaron moved toward the door.
Thomas looked at Victoria.
“Please.”
She turned.
“Where is my mother’s bracelet?”
“Safe deposit box in Stamford.”
“Key is in my coat.”
Aaron took his coat.
Thomas stood.
“Victoria.”
She did not look back.
“I am sorry.”
That stopped her.
Not because apology moved her.
Because it reminded her of Daniel.
A real apology had required her to look at an eleven-year-old girl and name what she had done.
Thomas’s apology contained no one but himself.
She turned.
“You are sorry because I found out.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me accuse innocent people for twelve years.”
“You watched me destroy jobs.”
“Reputations.”
“Lives.”
“And every time, you decided your fear mattered more.”
Thomas cried now.
Victoria felt nothing she recognized as mercy.
She looked at Aaron.
“Call police.”
Thomas lowered his head.
Victoria walked out.
She reached the hallway before her legs stopped working properly.
Aaron’s deputy caught her elbow.
Victoria pulled away instinctively.
“I’m fine.”
The lie came automatically.
Then she remembered Daniel.
Mia.
The question.
Would you have accused him that fast if this place looked expensive?