Chapter 13 - THE CHAIR VICTORIA LOST
Nathan won the vote eleven to six.
Victoria was removed as foundation chair for failing to disclose the E.H. threat, authorizing an unsupervised private investigation, and exposing confidential records. Some reasons were tactical. Others were valid.
Nathan became interim chair and immediately announced an independent review led by a law firm his mother’s company had used for years.
Victoria objected. The board muted her microphone.
Outside, reporters asked whether she was still attending the luncheon. Canceling would appear guilty; appearing would create a spectacle.
She remembered Tommy’s question.
“Yes,” she said. “I will be there.”
At home, she opened Rebecca’s jewelry box and found the pale ribbon she had worn as a child. It was frayed but carefully preserved. A modern replica usually sat in Victoria’s hair at public events because image consultants considered it part of her recognizable style.
She chose the original.
Charles warned that the luncheon might be a trap. Nathan had expanded security and instructed staff to remove unregistered visitors. Tommy and Sarah could be arrested for trespassing before reaching Victoria.
“Then they need a lawful invitation,” she said.
Victoria used her personal table allocation to issue two guest credentials under the names Tommy Reed and Sarah Reed. Nathan’s office canceled them within an hour.
Denise offered an alternative. Harbor House residents had standing invitations through the shelter partnership. Nathan could not exclude them without publicly contradicting the event’s charitable purpose.
The irony was not lost on Victoria. The people she once treated as beneficiaries were now teaching her how rights worked.
That evening, someone placed a child’s shoes outside her apartment door. They were new, Tommy’s size, and tied together with a pale ribbon.
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Inside one shoe was a note:
Do not mistake a costume for proof.
