Chương 9
Damian sat across from her.
“I thought you threw everything away.”
“I tried.”
“But?”
She looked at the photograph.
“But some things are harder to throw away than others.”
He did not touch it.
He did not ask to hold it.
He simply looked.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
Then Mabel said quietly, “I hated you for a long time.”
Damian nodded.
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
She traced the edge of the photograph.
“I hated you because hating you was easier than admitting I missed you.”
He looked down.
“That sounds painful.”
“It was.”
A small silence followed.
Then she added, “And I hated myself for missing you.”
Damian looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because I thought it meant I was weak.”
He shook his head.
“It doesn’t.”
She gave him a tired smile.
“You always say things like you know.”
“I’m learning not to.”
That surprised her.
The old Damian would have argued.
The old Damian would have explained why he was correct.
This version simply admitted he was still learning.
The next morning, everything changed.
Damian received a call from Rachel before breakfast.
“Someone accessed the files you requested.”
His expression tightened.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Can you track it?”
“Not easily.”
He stood from the table.
“Did anything disappear?”
“One folder.”
“Which one?”
There was a pause.
“The original investigation documents from the Mabel Sterling case.”
Damian felt a wave of anger.
“Someone knew.”
“Yes.”
“About us looking?”
“Yes.”
He looked across the kitchen.
Mabel was helping Lily pour cereal into a bowl.
A normal morning.
A peaceful moment.
And someone had just reached into the past to try to erase it again.
“Damian,” Rachel said.
“I’m here.”
“You need to be careful.”
He stared at the two people who had changed everything.
“I know.”
After he ended the call, Mabel noticed his expression.
“What happened?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation told her enough.
“Someone found out.”
She went still.
“About the records?”
He nodded.
“The files are missing.”
For several seconds, Mabel said nothing.
Then she walked to the cabinet and pulled out the cardboard box where she kept her old documents.
Damian watched her.
“What are you doing?”
She opened the box.
“I’m checking what they don’t know I have.”
Inside were years of paperwork.
Old notes.
Receipts.
Copies of emails.
Documents she had collected quietly while everyone believed she had given up.
Damian looked at the box.
“You kept all of this?”
Mabel nodded.
“I stopped fighting publicly.”
She pulled out a small notebook.
“But I never stopped looking.”
He looked at the notebook.
The cover was worn.
The pages were filled with handwriting.
“You knew one day you might need this.”
“No.”
She closed it.
“I knew one day I might need to prove to myself that I wasn’t imagining everything.”
Damian understood then.
The investigation was not just about clearing her name.
It was about returning something that had been taken from her.
Her belief in her own reality.
He reached toward the notebook.
Then stopped.
“Can I see it?”
Mabel studied him.
After a long moment, she handed it over.
The first page contained a date.
Four years earlier.
And beneath it, a sentence that made Damian’s breath stop.
The day before I was accused, Arthur Vance told me someone inside the company was stealing from him.
Not me.
Someone else.
The day before I was accused, Arthur Vance told me someone inside the company was stealing from him.
Not me.
Someone else.
Damian read the sentence several times before looking up.
“Mabel.”
She watched him carefully.
“I wrote everything down after that meeting.”
“Why?”
“Because he scared me.”
The honesty of that answer stayed with him.
Not because Mabel was someone who frightened easily.
Because if she had been frightened, then whatever happened in that office had been serious.
“What else did he say?”
She opened the notebook to another page.
“He said he trusted very few people.”
Damian frowned.
“My father said that all the time.”
“He also said that some people knew too much.”
A cold feeling moved through him.
“Did he name anyone?”
“No.”
“Did he mention Ethan?”
Mabel looked at him.
That reaction was enough.
“You suspected him.”
“I suspected everyone.”
“That’s not an answer.”
She closed the notebook.
“Ethan had access to things he shouldn’t have had access to.”
Damian stood quietly.
He thought about his cousin’s easy smile.
The way Ethan always joked about being the younger generation that would modernize the company.
The way everyone ignored how often he appeared near decisions he was not officially responsible for.
“I need to talk to him.”
Mabel immediately shook her head.
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because people who are hiding something rarely admit it when they know someone is looking.”
Damian looked at her.
“You think he’ll run.”
“I think he’ll prepare.”
She was right.
That was becoming a painful pattern.
For years, Damian had trusted instinct when it came from business.
Now he was learning to trust it when it came from Mabel.
Rachel arranged a meeting with a former employee who had worked directly under Ethan.
The woman’s name was Carla Monroe.
She was hesitant at first.
“I don’t want my name involved.”
Damian nodded.
“I understand.”
“Do you?”
She looked at him.
“Because people like you usually don’t understand what it’s like to be replaceable.”
The comment was sharp.
Damian accepted it.
“No.”
Carla looked surprised.
“No?”
“No, I don’t understand.”
That honesty seemed to lower her guard.
She explained that Ethan had pressured employees to approve unusual payments.
Not openly.
Never in writing.
He used conversations.
Suggestions.
Hints.
“He never ordered anything,” Carla said.
“He just made you feel stupid if you questioned him.”
Damian looked at the documents in front of him.
“Why didn’t you report it?”
Carla gave a tired laugh.
“To who?”
She tapped the table.
“The people above him were related to him.”
That was the problem with family businesses.
May you like
Loyalty could become a wall.
A person could be protected not because they were right.
