Chapter 3 - The Envelope in the Locker.
.Anna asked Damian to speak somewhere private, but Miriam insisted that nothing involving her staff should happen without her present.
Damian ignored that request.
He led Anna and Lily into his office beside the wine cellar, while security asked Miriam to remain in the kitchen.
The office looked severe from the outside, all black glass and walnut panels, but Lily immediately noticed a jar of wrapped chocolates beside the desk.
Damian slid it toward her.
“Take two.”
Lily looked at her mother first.
Anna nodded.
Lily chose one and whispered, “One is enough.”
Damian sat across from Anna.
“Start wherever you can.”
Anna rubbed flour from her palms onto her apron.
“My husband died two years ago.”
“I came here because the pastry position paid enough to keep our apartment.”
“Mrs. Vale knew I needed the job.”
Lily unwrapped the chocolate very carefully.
“After Lily fractured her ankle, I asked to move two evening shifts so I could take her to appointments.”
Damian remembered Miriam’s claim about attendance.
“What happened?”
“She agreed.”
“Then she started changing my schedule without notice.”
“She wrote me up for missing shifts I had never been told about.”
“She said if I complained to payroll, she would mark me as unreliable.”
“Why didn’t payroll contact me?”
Anna gave a tired smile.
“I tried.”
She reached into her apron and pulled out a folded envelope.
It had been opened and resealed with clear tape.
“I wrote to your office three weeks ago.”
His name was typed on the front.
The letter inside described altered schedules, missing overtime, threats, and cash deductions for supposed kitchen breakage.
Damian read the final line twice.
Please don’t tell Mrs. Vale I wrote this until I can move my daughter somewhere safe after school.
“I never received this.”
“I know.”
“How?”
Anna glanced toward the door.
“Because she gave it back to me yesterday.”
Damian’s expression did not change, but something colder entered the room.
“What did she say?”
“She said Mr. Moretti doesn’t read complaints.”
“Sweetheart.”
Lily stared at the chocolate wrapper.
“She said he only reads numbers.”
On another day, he might have laughed at the insult.
He did not feel like laughing.
“Where did she get it?”
“My locker.”
“She went through your locker?”
“She said management has that right.”
“Not like this.”
At that moment, someone knocked.
Security had found something.
In Miriam’s locked desk drawer sat a bundle of employee letters addressed to Damian’s office.
Some were months old.
Several envelopes had been opened.
One came from a dishwasher who had quit without explanation.
Another came from a server Damian remembered firing after Miriam reported repeated theft.
The security guard placed the bundle on Damian’s desk.
Anna stared at it.
Damian picked up the letter from the former server.
The first paragraph accused Miriam of forcing employees to repay customer complaints out of their tips.
The next claimed she kept a private ledger.
“Did you find the ledger?”
“Not yet.”
“You know where it is.”
She shook her head too quickly.
“I’ve seen something.”
“Where?”
Anna stared at her daughter.
Then she whispered, “In the old freezer office.”
Security moved toward the door.
Anna grabbed Damian’s sleeve.
“No.”
He stopped.
Her eyes were wide with fear.
“She knows we’re talking.”
Damian glanced toward the hallway camera feed on his monitor.
Miriam was no longer standing in the kitchen.
The security guard frowned.
“She was told not to leave.”
Damian clicked to the rear corridor camera.
For one second, the screen showed an empty hall.
Then Miriam appeared at the far end.
May you like
She was walking quickly toward the old freezer office.
And in her hand was a small silver key.
