Chapter 3 - The Woman Downstairs
Her name was Elena Harper.
Maeve's mother.
She worked nights in housekeeping and mornings in the club laundry.
Sometimes sixteen hours straight.
That explained Maeve's clothes.
But not why a three-year-old was wandering near the lobby.
“Where is your mother?”
Maeve pointed again.
“Down.”
Dominic interrupted.
“She's working.”
“Then take me to her.”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“That wasn't a request.”
Dominic lowered his voice.
“You don't understand what she's done.”
Maeve immediately grabbed my hand.
“Mommy didn't steal.”
Nobody had mentioned stealing.
I looked at Dominic.
His face tightened.
There it was.
I asked Maeve:
“Who said your mommy stole?”
“Mr. Dominic.”
Dominic stepped forward.
“She's three. She doesn't know what she's saying.”
Maybe.
But children repeat things.
And Dominic was panicking.
I asked an employee to bring Elena upstairs.
Nobody moved.
That told me something else.
They weren't afraid of me.
They were terrified of Dominic.
So I called the club's operations director directly.
Five minutes later, Elena entered the lobby.
Her uniform was wrinkled.
Her eyes were swollen.
The moment she saw Maeve, she rushed over.
“Baby!”
Maeve ran into her arms.
Elena held her.
Then noticed me.
Then Dominic.
“What happened?”
Dominic answered first.
“Your daughter was bothering members.”
Elena's expression hardened.
“She was supposed to be in the employee break room.”
“You shouldn't bring children to work.”
“I wouldn't if you hadn't cut the childcare benefit.”
I turned toward Dominic.
“What childcare benefit?”
He stared at Elena.
She immediately realized she had said something important.
“Mr. Bellini…”
“Rocco.”
She swallowed.
“The foundation used to subsidize childcare for employees below a certain income.”
I knew.
I helped create the program.
“What happened?”
“Dominic said the foundation canceled it.”
I slowly turned.
I had canceled nothing.
“How much was budgeted this year?”
Elena answered:
“Almost four hundred thousand.”
My chest tightened.
The money had been distributed.
On paper.
But employees weren't receiving it.
“Who told you it was canceled?”
Everyone looked at Dominic.
He scoffed.
“This is ridiculous.”
Elena reached into her uniform.
She removed a folded envelope.
“I kept these.”
Inside were copies of payroll deductions.
Benefit statements.
And emails.
Dominic had told low-wage employees the childcare program was insolvent.
Meanwhile, the foundation's accounting system showed every dollar being spent.
Somebody was billing us for childcare that didn't exist.
I asked:
“Who owns the vendor?”
Elena looked at Dominic.
“I tried to find out.”
“What happened?”
“He fired me this morning.”
Maeve clung tighter to her mother.
Dominic smiled coldly.
“She stole confidential documents.”
Elena looked directly at me.
“No.”
May you like
Then she said the sentence that finally broke Dominic's confidence.
“I copied proof that he did.”
