Chapter 6 - The Wrong Copy
"They fired her because of me," Maya said, standing on Emma's porch in her work uniform.
"We don't know that yet," Emma answered, though she feared it.
Mrs. Ortiz sat in Grant's kitchen drinking tea she hadn't touched. A text from her supervisor said she was being placed on unpaid leave for "improper discussion of internal procedures." It came minutes after the truck sheets were mentioned.
Grant offered a lawyer. Mrs. Ortiz accepted a consultation but refused money that could make her testimony look purchased. Emma was proud of her and ashamed the choice was necessary.
They laid the shipping forms on the kitchen table. One described two hundred sealed meal kits as "damaged and disposed." Maya's copy carried a handwritten correction: "Loaded intact, 6:42 p.m." The initials belonged to a driver named Russell Shaw.
"Someone needs to talk to him," Grant said.
"Someone independent," Emma corrected. "If you visit, it becomes the billionaire chasing a truck driver."
Grant smiled sadly. "You sound like your mother."
"Good."
The foundation auditor, Helen Price, agreed to contact Shaw through counsel and request the contractor's records. She warned them that handwriting alone did not prove theft.
That night Emma and Maya studied in the library. Olivia walked past with her friends and dropped a printed photograph on the table. It showed Emma carrying boxes through the pantry service door on a Thursday evening.
"Funny," Olivia said. "Everybody wants to know why you were stealing food."
Emma held the photo steady. The camera date was accurate. She really had been there.
"I was delivering food," she said.
Olivia's grin faltered for a fraction of a second. "Then why were you alone?"
Emma looked at the corner of the image where a small child had been cropped out. It was Mrs. Alvarez's nephew, whose family had asked for privacy after a housing emergency.
The uncropped image could clear Emma. Showing it would expose him.
May you like
"I can't give you what you want," Emma said.
Olivia bent closer. "Then enjoy being called a thief."
