Chapter 6 - HOW ONE BECAME MANY
Corrine admitted the sapphire.
Only the sapphire.
She insisted everything else was someone else.
Then Sloan admitted the ruby bracelet.
Only the ruby bracelet.
Now two substitutions had two different perpetrators.
The family story became messier.
Then the emerald brooch.
Records linked it to neither woman cleanly.
The fake repair invoice had been printed from the family office printer.
User log:
Thane.
He stared.
“I didn’t make it.”
Could someone use his login?
Yes.
He rarely logged out.
Harold’s secretary.
Corrine.
Sloan.
House manager.
Then Alora looked at old metadata.
The invoice PDF was created on a laptop named:
THANE-MBP.
His old personal computer.
Daniel—no, Thane—had given that laptop to Sloan when he upgraded.
Sloan admitted she had it.
But insisted Corrine asked her to make the receipt.
Corrine snapped:
“Liar.”
Sloan shouted:
“You taught me!”
Silence.
That sentence changed the investigation.
“You taught me!”
Not:
You made me.
Not:
You knew.
Taught.
Then Sloan started talking.
At seventeen she learned about the sapphire.
She saw Corrine switching insurance photographs after the replacement.
Corrine told her:
“Family things are family resources.”
At nineteen, Sloan needed money.
Corrine let her sell a small gold piece not central to the collection.
No one noticed.
At twenty, Sloan sold another.
Then the ruby bracelet.
Corrine did not always approve.
Sometimes she cleaned up afterward.
Replaced item.
Adjusted paperwork.
Invented repairs.
It became a family financial shadow system.
One Thane and Harold did not know existed.
Then Sloan pointed at Alora.
“She was going to expose us.”
Alora said:
“No. Harold was.”
Sloan laughed bitterly.
May you like
“Dad was dying. You became his hands.”
That explained the rage.
