Chapter 4 - Arthur’s Signature
Arthur stared at his name.
“I signed a request for an independent medical review.”
Victoria remained calm.
“The transfer documents were attached.”
“They were not attached when I signed.”
“You authorized updates.”
Arthur looked toward Eleanor.
Her disappointment was quieter than anger.
That made it worse.
“You trusted her,” Eleanor said.
“Yes.”
“You never asked me.”
“No.”
“Why?”
Arthur looked at Leah’s black uniform.
Then Victoria’s diamonds.
The answer was already visible.
Victoria spoke like old money.
Leah wrote from a staff email address.
When one woman said Eleanor needed protection, Arthur listened.
When the other said Eleanor was frightened, he forwarded the message without reading it.
“Because I was careless,” he admitted.
Leah did not comfort him.
His honesty mattered.
It did not erase the danger.
Victoria seized the moment.
“Then Arthur agrees the review was necessary.”
“No,” he answered.
“I agree that my negligence made your plan possible.”
He examined the transfer further.
The development company planned to replace the employee apartments with luxury condominiums.
Residents would receive sixty days to leave.
Victoria would collect a twenty-million-dollar transaction fee.
The gala itself had been charged to the employee retirement fund as a property-relations event.
The champagne.
The flowers.
The musicians.
Even Victoria’s diamond necklace had been listed as ceremonial foundation property.
Eleanor stared at the stones around Victoria’s neck.
“Did the staff pay for those?”
Victoria touched the necklace.
“The foundation owns them.”
Leah replied quietly:
“The foundation used retirement money.”
A former housekeeper began crying near the staircase.
May you like
Her husband had died after being denied an emergency distribution from that same fund.
The necklace was worth more than the amount he needed.
