Chapter 5 - The Cost of Speaking|
By lunchtime, a photograph of me kneeling beside Teresa was on a gossip website.
The headline asked whether Luca Moretti's maid had found a profitable way into his family.
The article displayed the false receipt.
It called me a consultant and suggested I had persuaded a vulnerable widow to move charitable funds.
Someone had turned the worst moment of Teresa's evening into evidence against the person helping her.
Hannah called before I finished reading.
“Emily, my program director received an email.”
I stepped into the stairwell.
“What kind of email?”
“It says my tuition came from money stolen from elderly people.”
She was trying to sound calm, which frightened me more than tears would have.
The school hadn't accused her of anything.
Her director wanted to understand why the nursing program had been named in a complaint.
Still, Hannah had spent the morning imagining her clinical placement disappearing.
“Did you take money from them?”
The question hurt.
Then I remembered that she was alone, staring at a paper that appeared to bear my signature.
“No.”
I sat on the stairs.
“You deserve to ask me that.”
She began crying then.
“I know how hard you work.”
I remembered our father counting grocery money at this same time of the month.
After his funeral, I had promised Hannah that she would finish school.
I had never imagined needing to prove that keeping the promise wasn't a crime.
Nora found me there.
She explained that she represented the foundation, so I needed someone whose only responsibility was to me.
She gave me the number of a neighborhood legal clinic.
That afternoon, I met Leah Grant in an office with mismatched chairs and a basket of donated mittens.
She examined the receipt without looking impressed by the Moretti name.
“Did you receive this money?”
“No.”
“Did you sign this?”
“No.”
She nodded and began writing down dates.
We gathered my pay records, tuition payments, and the messages about the dinner.
She warned me that missing bank deposits alone wouldn't disprove a claim about cash.
We needed to establish where the document had come from.
For the first time all day, someone gave my fear a useful job.
When I returned to the estate, Luca was waiting near the kitchen.
“I can cover Hannah's tuition.”
I stopped beside the counter.
He seemed to hear the mistake after the words had left his mouth.
“I meant until this is settled.”
“I need my wages paid normally.”
My voice shook, but I continued.
“And I need you to let my lawyer do her work.”
He nodded.
“All right.”
I studied the man whose name could silence an entire dining room.
“Why did Vanessa say the books would hurt you?”
He looked toward the closed kitchen door.
For a moment, I thought he would remind me who employed me.
Instead, he pulled out a chair.
He waited until I sat before taking the one across from it.
“Some businesses paid my companies because they were afraid of what would happen if they refused.”
The refrigerator hummed behind us.
“Did you know?”
“Yes.”
“Did you stop it?”
He lowered his eyes.
“Not when I should have.”
I had wanted him to explain Vanessa's threat away.
His answer left me with something much less comfortable.
Daniel appeared carrying an envelope addressed to Teresa.
It was notice of an emergency board meeting requested by Victor Hale.
The treasurer wanted her authority suspended pending an investigation into financial misconduct.
The attached statement blamed improper influence by a household employee.
I read it twice before handing it back.
May you like
They hadn't merely tried to steal her foundation.
They were preparing to use my kindness as the reason she should lose it.
