Chapter 6 - SOMEONE WE TRUSTED
The email contained one sentence.
YOU’RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG WOMAN.
Attached was a photograph of Cross Meridian’s executive board.
Someone had drawn a red circle around Thomas Bell.
I refused to believe it.
Thomas had managed Nathaniel’s estate for twelve years.
He had hired me.
He had quietly advanced me two weeks’ pay when Lily had pneumonia.
He remembered every employee’s birthday.
Nathaniel didn’t accuse him immediately.
Instead, corporate investigators examined Thomas’s access records.
He had access to staff files.
He had access to Nathaniel’s study.
He knew the household schedule.
He could have planted documents.
He could have manipulated Vanessa.
But evidence is not the same as truth.
Thomas sat at the dining table while Nathaniel questioned him.
I was there because parts of the investigation involved my employment records.
Thomas listened.
Then laughed softly.
“So Richard sent you a photograph of me?”
Nathaniel nodded.
“And you believe him?”
“I’m asking.”
Thomas leaned back.
“Good.”
He looked almost proud.
“Your father would have accused first.”
Nathaniel said nothing.
Thomas removed his glasses.
“I didn’t sabotage your company.”
“Can you prove that?”
“No.”
Thomas looked at me.
“But Elena can prove something else.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“Your first year here.”
“What about it?”
“Do you remember when payroll accidentally underpaid you?”
“Yes.”
“You complained.”
“I asked.”
Thomas smiled.
“You were terrified.”
I remembered.
I had rehearsed the sentence for two hours before entering his office.
Thomas continued.
“The error came from Richard Vale.”
Nathaniel looked up.
“Richard handled household payroll?”
“For six months during restructuring.”
Thomas walked to a cabinet.
He removed an old ledger.
“I kept copies because numbers didn’t match.”
He opened it.
Dozens of entries showed small payroll discrepancies.
Twenty dollars.
Seventy.
One hundred fifteen.
Mostly hourly workers.
Kitchen staff.
Cleaners.
Groundskeepers.
Drivers.
Amounts small enough that wealthy executives would never notice.
Huge to the people losing them.
Nathaniel’s face darkened.
“How long?”
Thomas answered.
“Years.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I did.”
Nathaniel stared.
Thomas opened another folder.
Emails.
He had sent warnings.
They were forwarded to Richard.
Then closed.
Nathaniel whispered, “I never saw these.”
“No.”
Thomas looked tired.
“Because your executive office filtered anything labeled operational.”
Nathaniel leaned back.
For the first time, I saw what leadership failure looked like when a good man realized he had outsourced too much of his conscience.
Thomas pointed at Richard’s payroll history.
“He learned something valuable.”
“What?”
“That nobody important notices when you steal from people who don’t have lawyers.”
The sentence hung in the room.
Nathaniel looked at me.
I thought about every paycheck I had checked twice.
Every grocery item returned to a shelf.
Every evening I told Lily we could buy something next month.
Richard had begun by stealing pennies from invisible people.
Then millions from a corporation.
Perhaps greed was like that.
It practiced on people nobody defended.
Nathaniel closed the ledger.
“Why frame Vanessa?”
Thomas shrugged.
“Maybe he didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
“Vanessa may still be guilty. Just not of everything.”
That evening, investigators confirmed it.
Vanessa’s family company had purchased debt.
She had obtained confidential information.
She had sabotaged my employment opportunities.
She had researched Nathaniel’s trust.
All true.
But some documents in the folders had been printed on a Cross Meridian machine used only by the CFO’s office.
Richard had been feeding Vanessa information.
Using her ambition.
Using her jealousy.
Maybe allowing her to believe she was using him.
Then police found something else.
A storage unit rented under Richard’s assistant’s name.
Inside were company records, prepaid phones, cash, forged signatures, and photographs of several Cross Meridian employees.
Including me.
Including Lily.
One photo showed Lily’s preschool.
I had to sit down.
Nathaniel saw it.
“No.”
“What?”
“You’re not going back to your apartment.”
“I can’t stay here forever.”
“Until Richard is found, yes.”
“You don’t decide that.”
“No.”
His voice softened.
“But I’m asking.”
I looked at the photograph again.
I agreed.
That night, Lily slept beside me.
At 2:13 a.m., I heard a knock.
Nathaniel stood outside.
“What?”
His face was pale.
“They found Richard.”
My heart jumped.
“Where?”
“In his car.”
“Is he alive?”
Nathaniel looked away.
“No.”
I covered my mouth.
“What happened?”
“Gunshot.”
I whispered, “Suicide?”
Nathaniel met my eyes.
“Police don’t think so.”
Then he handed me a plastic evidence sleeve.
Inside was a folded note found in Richard’s pocket.
Three words.
May you like
ELENA KNOWS WHY.
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