Chương 8
“No. I mean here. Victor gets fired. We get interviewed. What happens to you?”
The question held the room.
Dominic glanced toward Leah. She did not help him.
“I surrender control of the fund immediately,” he said. “I open the personnel and payment records. I accept whatever financial and regulatory consequences follow.”
“That still sounds like rich-person consequences,” the sous-chef said.
Dominic nodded. “It may be.”
Mara felt a grudging respect she did not want.
Then a young hostess stood near the entrance. Her name was Kayla. She had been at Aurelia only three months and usually spoke so softly guests leaned toward her.
“Victor said Mr. Moretti knew,” she said.
Every face turned.
Dominic’s eyes settled on her. “Knew what?”
“The fund. The fake applications. He said it was how the restaurant moved money.”
Leah stopped writing.
Kayla twisted a ring around her finger. “He said if anyone asked, we were supposed to say employees got cash.”
“Did you?” one of the investigators asked.
Kayla looked toward Dominic and flinched.
Mara stepped away from the bar. “Look at her, not him.”
The investigator shifted her chair. “You’re right. Kayla, look at me. Did you personally distribute cash?”
“Once.”
“To whom?”
“I don’t know. A man came through the private entrance. Victor gave me an envelope and told me to hand it over.”
“When?”
“Last spring.”
“Was Mr. Moretti present?”
“No.”
“Did Victor say whose money it was?”
Kayla swallowed. “He said it was family money.”
The phrase moved through the room differently from everything else.
Mara had heard it before. Everyone at Aurelia had. Family money. Family table. Family business. Words polished smooth until they could mean loyalty or threat, depending on who spoke them.
Dominic’s face revealed nothing.
Leah closed her notebook. “We need to end the group discussion and begin individual interviews.”
“No,” Dominic said.
She looked at him. “Dominic.”
“They deserve an answer.”
“To a claim we cannot yet evaluate?”
“To whether I used the fund to move money.”
The room became still.
“No,” he said. “I did not.”
The hostess’s shoulders loosened slightly.
Dominic continued. “That does not mean every dollar in my businesses will satisfy every person in this room. It does not mean my name is clean because I say it is. It means Victor lied about this.”
Mara heard the care in his phrasing. He had not declared himself innocent. He had denied one act.
After the meeting, people remained in small groups. Some signed up for interviews. Others left without speaking. Fear did not dissolve because Dominic had offered records and money. It only changed direction.
Rosa walked Mara toward the subway.
“You believe him?” Rosa asked.
“About which part?”
“Any part.”
Mara tucked her chin into her coat. “I believe he didn’t know Ellie was in the closet.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
They stopped at a crosswalk.
Rosa rubbed both hands over her face. “Victor got me twelve hundred dollars when Mateo needed the dentist.”
“The fund got you twelve hundred dollars.”
“I thanked Victor.”
“You didn’t know.”
“I brought him a bottle of whiskey at Christmas.”
“You bought a thief a bad drink. There are worse crimes.”
“It was good whiskey.”
“Then you should be furious.”
Rosa laughed, then started crying. She turned away from the traffic and wiped her cheeks with the heel of her hand.
Mara waited.
“I kept thinking he was mean because the job was hard,” Rosa said. “I thought maybe that’s what managers are.”
“Some managers are mean because they enjoy being mean.”
“I told you to listen to him.”
“You also opened the closet.”
“Forty minutes late.”
“You opened it.”
The light changed. They crossed with the crowd.
At the subway entrance, Rosa said, “What are you going to tell Child and Family Services?”
“The truth.”
“All of it?”
Mara thought of the rattle in her bag, the messages from Victor, Dominic’s security car outside her building, the forged forms, the forty-two minutes Ellie had spent behind a locked door.
“I don’t know what all of it is yet.”
For the next week, Mara’s life became a series of rooms where strangers asked her to repeat the worst decision she had ever made.
Tasha Bell returned twice. An independent attorney named Priya Shah agreed to represent Mara after a nonprofit workers’ clinic arranged payment through a fund Dominic did not control. Priya was thirty-six, wore bright blue glasses, and had a habit of tapping her pen against her teeth while thinking. She told Mara that honesty was useful, preparation was essential, and shame was not a legal strategy.
“Do not minimize what happened,” Priya said. “But do not accept responsibility for what Victor did after placing you under pressure.”
“I brought Ellie there.”
“Yes.”
“I left her.”
“Yes.”
Mara flinched each time Priya agreed.
Priya lowered the pen. “You want me to absolve you.”
“No.”
“You do.”
Mara stared at the office carpet.
“I can’t,” Priya said. “That’s not what good representation is. You made an unsafe decision. Victor exploited it, increased the danger, falsified documents, and retaliated. Both can be true.”
“Child services can take her.”
“They can act if they believe she is unsafe.”
“Which means yes.”
“It means we show what has changed. Childcare plan. Work schedule. support network. No unsupervised workplace arrangements. Cooperation with the investigation.”
“I don’t have a support network.”
“You have Rosa.”
“She works nights.”
“You have Diane.”
“She thinks I’m responsible for Owen’s death because I asked him to take an extra shift.”
Priya stopped tapping her pen.
“She’s never said it directly,” Mara continued. “She doesn’t have to.”
“Does she care for Ellie safely?”
“Yes.”
“Then she may be part of the plan even if the relationship is difficult.”
May you like
Mara hated that answer.
Aurelia reduced its hours during the investigation. Dominic guaranteed wages, though people argued about how tips should be calculated. An accountant produced an average based on the previous twelve weeks. Servers with recent high sales objected. Servers who had taken sick days objected more. The staff formed a committee, then spent its first meeting debating whether Colin should be allowed to attend.
