Chapter 2 - THE EMPTY ENVELOPE
“It was a misunderstanding,” Victoria said.
“Then explain it,” Vincent answered.
“Your mother became confused. She accused me of something outrageous.”
Isabella Moretti lifted her chin. “My legs don't work well. My memory works fine.”
Emma almost smiled. Then she saw how hard Isabella was gripping her armrest.
Vincent asked security to clear the adjoining sitting room. “Emma, would you stay? Only if you're willing.”
Her manager, Paul Mercer, stood behind him, silently shaking his head.
“I'll stay.”
Inside, Isabella asked for water before answering anything else. Emma handed her a glass and waited while she drank.
“Victoria chairs the Harbor Assistance Fund,” Isabella said. “I helped start it for hotel workers and their families. Lately, people have been telling me they applied for help and heard nothing.”
“Applications are reviewed,” Victoria said sharply. “We can't approve everyone.”
“I asked to see the accounts. Instead, you brought a statement saying I approved last year's spending.”
Vincent held out his hand. “The statement.”
Victoria opened her clutch. A lipstick rolled onto the carpet. She produced an envelope, looked inside, and frowned.
It was empty.
“I must have left it at my table.”
Emma remembered a gray-haired man taking a folder from Victoria just before the confrontation. She had assumed he was helping with the auction.
“Someone collected it,” she said. “A man with silver glasses.”
Vincent's expression tightened. “Adrian Wells. Our chief financial officer.”
Victoria gave a little shrug. “Then ask Adrian. Honestly, Vincent, your mother came in without introducing herself. I knew her as Mrs. Rossi from old fund correspondence. How was I supposed to recognize her?”
“Would that have changed what your hand was doing?” Emma asked.
Silence settled over the room.
Isabella looked at her. “Rossi was my name before I married. I used it when I worked here, years before my son bought this place.”
Vincent told a guard to locate Adrian and preserve the ballroom recordings. Victoria was escorted to a separate room to wait.
Emma's phone vibrated. Her sister, Lily, had sent a picture of their father eating soup, followed by a question about her shift.
Before Emma could answer, Paul appeared in the doorway.
May you like
He held her time card.
“Clock out,” he said. “You're suspended.”
