Millions of dollars had disappeared from client accounts.
Records had been altered.
An employee named Evelyn Hale had been publicly blamed.
Daniel’s mother.
“She didn’t do it,” Daniel said quietly.
Samuel had.
According to Daniel, Evelyn had been Samuel’s accountant and, briefly, his girlfriend. When she discovered irregular transfers, she copied company records.
Then she found out she was pregnant.
Samuel wanted control over both her and the evidence.
Evelyn left.
Years later, when Daniel was twelve, she contacted Robert.
“Why Robert?”
“Because he was the only person Samuel feared disappointing.”
That surprised me.
“Samuel cared what Robert thought?”
“More than anything.”
Daniel sat on a box.
“They were identical, but they were nothing alike. Robert used to say Samuel spent his whole childhood trying to prove that being clever mattered more than being kind.”
I looked through the
documents.
“Where is your mother now?”
Silence.
Daniel’s eyes dropped.
