Chapter 3 - The Relief Fund
Victoria claimed the file had been delivered by mistake.
Thomas removed nothing from her.
Richard asked her to place it on the table herself.
Inside were drafts of Thomas’s termination, blacklist notices and a confidential psychological assessment written before he had ever been examined.
The assessment called him obsessive.
Emotionally unstable.
Unable to separate professional duties from personal loyalty.
Thomas looked at Atlas.
“They turned caring for the dog into proof I was unfit.”
The same strategy appeared in every file connected to the missing fund.
A retired accountant who questioned pension transfers was labeled forgetful.
A housekeeper requesting medical reimbursement was called aggressive.
A driver who asked why his widow benefit had changed was written up for insubordination.
None had powerful relatives.
None had private attorneys.
Their complaints became personality defects.
Their evidence became misconduct.
The fund should have contained more than one hundred and forty million dollars.
Only forty-four million remained.
Richard looked at Victoria.
“You chaired the relief foundation.”
“I relied on Mason’s security audits.”
Mason replied immediately:
“I relied on her financial authorizations.”
Each pointed upward when taking credit.
Each pointed sideways when facing blame.
Thomas opened a payroll summary he had carried inside his coat.
Employees paid the same percentage regardless of rank.
But benefits were not equal.
Executives received private nursing care, luxury recovery apartments and years of salary protection.
Housekeepers waited months for basic reimbursements.
A senior vice president’s adult son received housing after losing an investment property.
A dishwasher’s widow received nothing because she missed one form deadline.
Victoria called the different benefit classes necessary.
Thomas looked toward the servers.
“They took equal percentages from unequal paychecks.”
A worker earning forty thousand dollars sacrificed more by losing three percent than an executive earning two million.
Yet the executive family received more.
Richard opened the gala budget.
That evening’s champagne, flowers and ballroom rental had been charged to the relief fund as donor outreach.
The workers serving the event had paid for it.
May you like
Then the hotel accountant joined the review remotely.
One missing transfer had gone directly to Richard Harrington.
