Chapter 3 - Ruth Hale Was Never Cleared
Lily and I spent that night at my friend Natalie’s apartment.
At 1:00 a.m., Lily woke crying.
“Is Daddy mad?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Grandma Olivia mad?”
“Yes.”
“Is it because of me?”
“No.”
I hated how quickly children made themselves responsible for adult cruelty.
I sat beside her until she fell asleep.
Then I called my mother.
She lived in Lexington.
We were close, but anything involving Grandma Ruth had always been a closed door.
“Mom, what happened with Grandma at Sterling?”
Silence.
Then:
“Why?”
I told her about the ring.
She started crying.
“Mom?”
“I knew somebody would recognize it eventually.”
“You knew Eleanor Sterling gave it to her?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did Grandma die with people thinking she stole it?”
“Because the ring wasn’t the accusation that mattered.”
The missing money was.
Ruth had worked as an accounts supervisor for the Sterling Foundation.
Eleanor Sterling volunteered there.
Olivia was a junior administrative assistant.
Money began disappearing through small vendor payments.
Ruth noticed.
Then, before she could complete her review, documents surfaced making it appear that she had redirected payments herself.
The orchid ring was found in her purse.
Eleanor was out of the country at the time.
Julian believed the evidence.
Ruth was fired.
No criminal conviction followed.
The financial trail was too messy.
But professionally, it destroyed her.
“She tried to fight it,” Mom said.
“What happened?”
“Sterling’s attorneys threatened to pursue everything if she kept accusing Olivia.”
My stomach turned.
“Olivia?”
“Your grandmother said Olivia was moving the money.”
I sat back.
“Did she have proof?”
“Not enough.”
Then Mom told me something else.
Ruth had kept copies of several invoices.
After she died, Mom stored them.
“Why didn’t you ever show me?”
“Because I didn’t want you obsessed with clearing a name from thirty years ago.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
The answer came too quickly.
She had clearly regretted it before tonight.
Then I thought of something.
“How long did Olivia work for Sterling?”
“About six years.”
“What happened after Ruth was fired?”
Mom hesitated.
“She started earning more.”
“From Sterling?”
“Some. Then she married David Bennett.”
Richard’s late father.
The Bennetts eventually built a catering and event company.
The same company that now handled major functions for Sterling Holdings and the Sterling Foundation.
I stopped.
“Mom, are Olivia’s companies still doing business with Julian Sterling?”
“Yes.”
The old accusation wasn’t simply buried history.
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Olivia still made money from the family my grandmother had been accused of stealing from.
And for the last seven years, so had my husband.
