“It sounds like it.”
“Then consider it damages caused by my failure to supervise the people I put in power.”
That stopped her.
Jonathan continued.
“You don't have to work for me again.”
“I wasn't planning to.”
“I assumed.”
Despite herself, Elena almost smiled.
Then Jonathan told her about Margaret's video.
Elena's expression changed.
“Mrs. Lancaster?”
“You knew her?”
“No.”
“Then why that look?”
Elena hesitated.
“Because of the attic.”
Jonathan became still.
“What attic?”
“The east attic.”
“What about it?”
“I cleaned it three months ago.”
“And?”
“There was a box with her name.”
Jonathan leaned forward.
“What box?”
“I don't know. Charles came in while I was cleaning.”
“What happened?”
“He told me never to enter that section again.”
Jonathan stood.
“Come with me.”
“No.”
He stopped.
Right.
He couldn't order her anymore.
“Will you show me where?”
Elena considered.
Then nodded.
At Blackwood Manor, police still occupied the carriage house.
Jonathan walked through his front door with Elena beside him.
Employees watched.
Some looked stunned.
Others ashamed.
Jonathan stopped in the foyer.
He addressed everyone.
“Elena Morales was terminated this morning.”
Silence.
“She was terminated because she gave food to a man she believed was homeless.”
Several employees looked at one another.
Jonathan continued.
“The man was me.”
Gasps.
He let them react.
Then:
“What I did was deceptive.”
Nobody expected that.
“I wanted to test your character.”
Jonathan looked around the room.
“What I actually exposed was my own failure.”
He saw Sam.
Brenda.
Kitchen staff.
Housekeepers.
People he'd passed for years without learning much about them.
“I created a house where people believed my approval mattered more than doing what was right.”
He paused.
“Charles and Derek exploited that.”
Jonathan looked at Elena.
“And when someone finally refused to participate, she paid the price.”
He turned toward the staff.
“Elena's termination is void.”
Then toward her.
“If she wants it void.”
Elena said nothing.
Fair.
Jonathan continued.
“Effective immediately, no manager at this estate may terminate an employee without independent HR review. All surveillance outside security zones is suspended pending investigation. Staff files will be audited. Anyone who believes they were threatened or coerced will have access to outside counsel paid by me.”
Sam stared.
Brenda began crying.
Jonathan wasn't finished.
“If you leave Blackwood because you no longer trust this house, you will receive severance.”
That produced another murmur.
Jonathan looked at them.
“You do not owe me loyalty because I sign your checks.”
Margaret's words returned.
You're paying for their work. Decency is separate.
Jonathan swallowed.
“I should have understood that years ago.”
Then he followed Elena upstairs.
The east attic was behind a narrow corridor Jonathan hadn't entered in years.
Margaret used to store Christmas decorations there.
Elena pointed toward a cedar cabinet.
“Behind that.”
Jonathan and a police officer moved it.
Nothing.
Elena frowned.
“It was here.”