Chapter 5 - The Woman They Called Unstable
Her name was Nora Bell.
Dominic remembered her as a payroll supervisor with a sharp voice and an unfortunate habit of interrupting meetings.
Silas had described her dismissal differently.
Erratic behavior.
Missing funds.
A growing fixation on matters outside her department.
Dominic had accepted the summary because it arrived between two more profitable problems.
Now Nora sat across from him in Ruth Calder’s office wearing a coat with a repaired cuff.
“I’d like you to understand something before I start,” she said.
Dominic nodded.
“I didn’t come here for your apology.”
He lowered his eyes.
“All right.”
“I came because your wife got hurt, and he made sure the rest of us learned from it.”
Mara sat beside Ruth.
She had chosen the meeting location herself.
No Hale offices.
No security men inside the room.
Nora opened an old canvas bag and removed three folders.
She had preserved payroll adjustments, vendor invoices, and emails connecting maintenance cancellations to a company called Northline Fleet Services.
Northline had received payments for repairs employees said were never completed.
Silas had approved the invoices.
When Nora questioned them, money appeared to go missing from an account under her supervision.
She was dismissed before the internal review concluded.
“Why keep this?” Ruth asked.
“Because I knew what I’d done, and I knew what I hadn’t.”
Dominic studied one invoice.
His approval code appeared in the corner.
Another thing his name had authorized without his attention.
Mara watched him.
He set the paper down carefully.
“What happened after you lost your job?” she asked Nora.
Nora’s expression softened for the first time.
“My husband picked up extra shifts. We fell behind anyway. I stopped applying for accounting work because every reference call ended the same way.”
Ruth made a note.
“We’ll investigate that separately.”
“No promises,” Nora said quickly.
“No promises about outcomes,” Ruth agreed. “A promise that your evidence will be examined.”
On the drive home, Mara looked out at the traffic.
Dominic sat beside her, leaving the space between them undisturbed.
“You believed him about her,” she said.
“Yes.”
“Would you have believed him about me?”
The question struck deeper than any accusation.
Dominic wanted to say never.
But he remembered standing in a ballroom, convinced that his wife’s fear was rejection because that explanation suited his wounded pride.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
Mara turned toward him.
He forced himself to continue.
“I want to say no. I haven’t earned the right to be that certain.”
She studied him for a long time.
Then she looked back at the window.
At home, Bennett was waiting.
Silas had contacted two senior executives and attempted to arrange a meeting without Dominic.
He claimed the company’s founder was making emotional decisions under pressure from his wife.
Dominic almost laughed.
For years, Silas had used his temper.
Now he was trying to use his restraint.
“What do you want done?” Bennett asked.
“Send the messages to Ruth.”
“He’s telling people Mara’s confused.”
Dominic stood very still.
Mara stepped into the hallway behind him.
“I’m standing right here.”
Bennett looked embarrassed.
Dominic turned toward her.
“How do you want us to handle it?”
She seemed surprised again.
He hated how often respect surprised her.
“I want a written record,” she said. “And I want people told that questions about my health don’t belong in company gossip.”
Bennett nodded.
“I’ll arrange it.”
That night, Mara found Dominic alone at the kitchen table.
No whiskey.
No phone call.
A stack of old incident reports lay beside a legal pad.
“What are you doing?”
“Reading what I should have read before.”
She stood in the doorway for a moment.
Then she made tea.
She placed one mug beside his hand and took the chair across from him.
They sat without discussing forgiveness.
It was the most peaceful hour they had shared in months.
Then Ruth called.
Northline’s registered owner was a relative of Silas.
And someone had just attempted to transfer the company’s remaining balance into another account.
Ruth had alerted the appropriate investigators.
Dominic listened, asked two questions, and hung up.
Mara watched him.
“You’re staying here?”
He looked at the tea she had made.
May you like
“Yes,” he said.
For the first time, she believed he meant it.
