Page 163 of Matteo

Alex’s nostrils flare. “I gave you all the evidence.”

I let out a heavy sigh. “I'm trying to cover all the possibilities.”

I am. I'd rather this not be true, but Alex is never wrong. Still, there's too much at stake here. We need to tread carefully. It’s not just about whether Elizabeth is guilty or not, it’s what it means if she is. That she lied. That she didn’t trust me.

That I've been played, the same way the old man played Mama.

I swore it would never happen to me. I spent years making sure it couldn’t. Keeping people at a distance. Never giving anyone enough of myself to hurt me.

Then Elizabeth came along.

The thought that Alex might be right twists something deep inside me. Not because of how Elizabeth has hurt me, but because I let her get close enough to do it.

He leans against the door, hands behind his back. “You're clearly jetlagged and you need to get some sleep, but for the record, we have repeated activity tied to her credentials. We have proximity to the incidents. We have enough that if this were anyone else, they’d already be out.”

Anyone else.

But Elizabeth isn't anyone else. Alex probably senses that I'm biased in her favor.

“I can't just fire her. I need an ironclad case. My father hired her.” I don't even want to think about telling him about any of this.

“Have you told him?” Alex asks, as if reading my mind.

“Not yet. He's not well, and I prefer to leave him out of this for now.”

“What's wrong with him?”

“His kidneys are failing.”

Alex freezes. “What?”

“Stage four kidney disease.”

For the first time since I walked into the office, the fight seems to leave him.

“Jesus, Matteo. I didn't know.”

I shrug. “Most people don't. We’ve been keeping it a secret, only family knows. The last thing we need is to get the investors alarmed.”

Alex walks over and plants his hands on the desk, glares at me. “She should have been suspended at the very least.”

“Not yet.” I understand Alex's annoyance. If it were anyone else, maybe. I’m handling it differently, but this situation is complicated.

He lets out a heavy exhale, and turns away from me, staring out at the open plan office. We say nothing for a while. Then he turns around, hands clasped at the back of his head, looking exasperated. “So, you want to wait until she wipes something important?”

He talks like he hates Elizabeth. His thought process is clear cut while mine is a mess.

“She won’t have the chance,” I say. “I'll pull her elevated permissions and restrict everything to her normal audit scope.”

“Is that all?”

He’s like a piranha, biting, biting, biting. I wish he'd leave me in peace.

“She has enough access to work, but not enough to do damage,” I say, feeling weary.

“How do you know what her motivation is?”

Enough. I want to shout. I want to let it go. I huff out a heavy breath. “That's part of the problem. I don’t.” I’ve been trying to work out why she would do this, and I can find no reasonable answer to that question.