Daniel continued.
“I remember every word you said to me. Every single one.”
“I’m so sorry.”
Her response came instantly.
“Please. I didn’t know.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s the problem.”
Victoria blinked.
“I didn’t know it was you.”
“I know.”
He let the words sit for a moment.
“You thought I was someone who couldn’t hurt your career.”
Her eyes dropped.
“You thought I was someone nobody would believe.”
She started to speak.
Daniel stopped her.
“You don’t need to explain how you treated me after learning who I am. I’m interested in how you treated me before.”
Grace stood several feet away, still holding the same expression of disbelief.
Daniel looked at her.
“You were kind to me before you knew.”
Grace swallowed.
“I didn’t do anything special.”
“No.”
Daniel glanced at the executives surrounding them.
“That’s what makes it important.”
His mother turned toward Marcus.
“How many times have you removed people from this entrance because an executive complained?”
Marcus hesitated.
“I’d have to check.”
“Check.”
Then she looked at Thomas.
“Who approved the payment you just offered him?”
Thomas’s face tightened.
“Ma’am, I was only trying to avoid a scandal for the company.”
“That is not what I asked.”
He glanced toward Daniel.
“It came from discretionary funds.”
“Approved by whom?”
Thomas didn’t answer.
Daniel reached beneath the shoe stand and removed a plain folder.
He had printed the records the night before.
He handed one page to Thomas.
“Do you recognize the signature?”
Thomas looked down.
His own name stared back at him.
Daniel had highlighted sixteen similar payments made over fourteen months.
Temporary vendors.
Street petitioners.
A delivery driver.
Two contract workers.
A former maintenance employee.
Each payment had been described as a resolution.
Daniel looked at him.
“Then you know exactly what it means.”
Thomas’s shoulders dropped.
Victoria seemed to realize the situation was much larger than the missing bracelet.
She reached into her handbag, perhaps searching for her phone.
Her hand stopped.
Something small clicked against the pavement.
Everyone looked down.
The bracelet fell from an inner pocket of her purse.
Nobody moved.
Victoria stared at it.
Daniel stared too.