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“We did, once, in passing. We were in the elevator together. She mentioned you were going with her to some beach concert that weekend and asked if I wanted to come along.”
I remember that concert. It was one of the last things I did with Viola before I got fired. “I’m assuming you turned her down.”
“I asked if she was looking for a date since you would be with Maxwell.”
Interesting. “What did she say to that?” Viola knows Maxwell is my cat.
“Just that Maxwell wouldn’t be there.”
“And then?”
“I’m not sure I remember. It wasn’t a particularly memorable conversation. She might’ve been uncharacteristically quiet, like she had a lot going on inside her head.”
It’s possible I should have some allegiance to Viola. We were best friends for two years. But I don’t feel it. Not anymore.
“I knew Viola pretty well,” I say.
“Of course. You guys were always together.”
“Yeah, up until she got me fired.”
Rhett’s fingers fiddle with a piece of brush. “She was upset when she turned those papers in. She begged me not to fire you.”
“That doesn’t mean she meant it. I’m trying to trace the timeline of everything.”
“What do you mean?”
“If she was talking about that beach concert we went to, that was only two weeks before she came to you with the so-called evidence that I cost the company half a million in fraudulent marketing charges.”
“That sounds about right.”
“She’s had this massive obsession with you for years.”
He scrunches his brow. “I recently realized that.”
“Right. Because she snuck up to your cabin.”
Rhett puffs out an angry rush of air. “Does everyone know about that?”
“I don’t think so. I saw her leaving your floor after I talked to Kenna about it. Kenna is her new bestie, although her allegiance isn’t particularly strong.”
“So you and Viola aren’t friends anymore?”
“Hell no. Not that I initiated that. Viola cut me off. She knows what she did.”
Rhett breaks twigs off a piece of brush with angry snaps. “So, you think my conversation with Viola about Maxwell and the beach concert led to her getting you fired?”
“I mean, I don’t get the connection. Why would you care if I had a boyfriend or a cat? But it meant something to her. There’s no reason why she did it on this timeline, except for that conversation. If she was going to get me jettisoned, she could have done it at any time.”
Rhett releases a shower of crumbled twig bits to the sand. “And nothing else happened between you two? There was no reason why she might want to get you out of the company?”
“I mean, who knows with Viola? We did everything together. It was like a break-up for me. And then with no job? My life got completely upended.”
He brushes his hands together to knock the twig dust off. “I can see that. I’m sorry. I’m not sure where we go from here, though.”
“First, we have to get off this island.”
He nods.
