Chapter 6
Vincent confronted Dominic with the numbers.
This time Dominic stopped lying.
“My mother saved my company.”
“She robbed widows.”
“I didn’t know at first.”
“When did you know?”
“Three years ago.”
Vincent stared at him.
“And you kept taking the money.”
“I stopped new transfers.”
“After six years.”
Dominic looked away.
“I was trying to repair it.”
“With what?”
“My company.”
“That explains the ninety days.”
Dominic said nothing.
Vincent continued.
“You planned to sell.”
“Yes.”
“Restore the trust.”
“Yes.”
“End the audit.”
“Yes.”
“And everybody would pretend nothing happened.”
Dominic’s voice broke.
“That was the plan.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“Whose plan included killing me?”
Dominic looked sick.
“I told Helena you would never stop the audit once Kessler showed you the numbers.”
“And?”
“She said she would handle it.”
“You knew what that meant.”
“No.”
Vincent’s fist hit the desk.
“Don’t.”
Dominic flinched.
“You arranged my memorial before the attack.”
“Because by Monday afternoon she told me it was done.”
“What was done?”
“She said you wouldn’t be coming back.”
Vincent stared at him.
“You didn’t ask how?”
Dominic looked at the floor.
“No.”
There was the guilt.
Not ignorance.
Chosen ignorance.
Dominic had allowed himself not to ask because the answer would make him responsible.
Vincent sat back.
“How did she know my route?”
“I gave it to her.”
The room went silent.
Dominic whispered, “I thought she was going to pressure you. Maybe frighten you. I told myself a lot of things.”
Vincent looked at his cousin for a long time.
“You gave her the road.”
“Yes.”
“You let her tell you I wouldn’t return.”
“Yes.”
“You ordered my funeral portrait before the car went off the road.”
Dominic closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Vincent stood.
Dominic looked up, expecting violence.
It did not come.
“You thought selling your company afterward would make you a decent man again.”
Dominic’s face tightened.
“I thought putting the money back mattered.”
“It does.”
Vincent walked toward the door.
“It just doesn’t erase what you were willing to let happen to do it.”
As he reached the hall, Dominic called after him.
“Vincent.”
He stopped.
“My mother didn’t start stealing because she wanted money.”
Vincent looked back.
“Then why?”
Dominic hesitated.
May you like
“You need to ask what she thought she was saving.”
That was the third clue that the missing money was only part of the story.
