Approvals.
Credentials.
Signatures.
Exactly what was happening to me.
I felt cold.
“You believed Richard stole.”
“For almost a year.”
“And then?”
“I found out his signature had been applied electronically after he had entered the hospital.”
I stared at her.
That detail changed everything.
“Did you tell Blake?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Last year.”
Last year.
Around the time Blake’s behavior began changing.
Late meetings.
Secretive calls.
New consulting work.
“What did Blake do?”
Vivian looked away.
“He said he could handle it.”
A terrible possibility formed.
“By taking Martin’s money?”
Her eyes snapped back to me.
“He said he needed to get close.”
“Close?”
“He told me Martin had approached him.”
“About what?”
“Consulting contracts. Vendor restructuring. He thought if he cooperated, he could find proof.”
I leaned back.
Blake had never been infiltrating Martin.
Not from what I had seen.
But perhaps that was the story he had told his mother.
“Why did you fire me?”
Vivian’s face hardened again.
“Because Blake told me you had found the vendor credits.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“He said Martin would blame you.”
“So you decided to blame me first?”
“We needed access to your office.”
“For what?”
Her eyes dropped to the table.
Then I remembered Blake’s reaction.
They had been looking for something.
“What?”
Vivian whispered, “Richard’s file.”
I stared at her.
“What file?”
“Before he died, Richard told me he had hidden copies of financial records somewhere Martin couldn’t reach.”
“Why would they be in my office?”
“He told Blake that if anything happened to him, the safest place was ‘where the company makes its money.’”
My mind jumped immediately to the flagship.
Belle & Vale Fifth Avenue had been the most profitable store even before I became manager.
“You thought he meant my office.”
“We thought he meant the flagship.”
“And you decided to tear apart my office without telling me?”
“Blake said you would go straight to Martin.”
I almost laughed at the irony.
I had.
The instant Vivian challenged me, I had called Martin.
Exactly as Blake predicted.
Exactly as Martin may have expected.
The room seemed to tilt.
“How long has Martin known I reported the credits?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did Blake tell him?”
Vivian’s face changed.
“He didn’t.”
“You’re sure?”
“Blake told me Martin approached him first.”
“When?”
She hesitated.
“The morning after you filed the compliance report.”
I stopped breathing.
Only a tiny number of people should have known about my report.
Sofia.
Her investigators.
Possibly legal.
And Martin.
The next morning, Martin had approached Blake.
Not after an audit.
Not after compliance completed anything.
Immediately.
Which meant the confidential report had traveled upward fast.
And then sideways.
To the man implicated.
That was either gross incompetence.
Or design.
Vivian reached across the table.
“Natalie.”
I pulled my hand away.
“There’s something you need to understand.”
“What?”
She swallowed.
