Chapter 9 - WHAT HER MOTHER NEVER TOLD HER
From the helicopter, the resort looked peaceful.
Small lights. Black water. Neat paths through dark gardens.
Maya watched it shrink beneath them and thought about how easy it was to make something ugly look beautiful from a distance.
Elise handed her a headset.
“Adrian’s on the line.”
His voice crackled through.
“The board is waiting.”
“Tell them the investment is suspended pending independent review.”
“Two directors want you to recuse yourself.”
“On what grounds?”
“Personal history.”
Maya closed her eyes.
The board had a point, even if Victor was using it against her.
“Fine. Form an independent committee. Give them every document. But nobody transfers a dollar tonight.”
Elise nodded.
“That I can support.”
Maya looked at her.
“You thought I’d fight it?”
“I thought you might be angry enough to forget they’re allowed to ask hard questions.”
“I’m angry enough to want answers that hold up.”
Adrian said, “Good. Because the audio complaint came through Marcus Bell.”
Crownline’s chief financial officer.
Maya felt a different kind of cold.
Marcus had joined when the company was expanding too quickly for her to manage every number herself.
He had negotiated the Arden proposal.
He knew the approval process.
He knew tonight’s schedule.
“Preserve his access logs,” she said. “Don’t accuse him yet.”
After the call, Maya dialed her mother.
Rosa answered on the second ring.
“Did you eat?”
The question almost broke her.
“Mom.”
“What happened?”
“Did you ever own land near the resort?”
Silence.
Below them, the city lights appeared.
“Mom?”
“Your grandfather left me a small house and the land behind it.”
“Did you sell it to Victor?”
“No.”
The answer came fast.
Then slower.
“I signed papers when the hotel offered me a permanent job. He said they were employment papers.”
Maya pressed a hand over her mouth.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because after they accused me of stealing, nobody believed anything I said.”
“You could have told me.”
“You were fifteen.”
Rosa’s voice trembled.
“You were already counting the rice before you cooked it. I wasn’t going to give you one more thing to be afraid of.”
Maya stared through the window until the lights blurred.
“Do you still have anything?”
“A tin box. Old tax receipts. Your grandfather’s papers.”
“Don’t give them to anyone.”
There was a sound on Rosa’s end.
A knock.
Maya sat upright.
“Who’s there?”
Her mother didn’t answer immediately.
Then she whispered.
“There’s a man at the gate.”
“Do you know him?”
“No.”
May you like
Another knock.
“He says he’s here to collect the box.”
