Page 86 of Justice Denied

“Can you unlock the doors?”

He did so and she climbed out. Was she moving slower than usual? He couldn’t be sure, but something seemed off. Once she was settled in the passenger seat and he’d relocked the doors, she immediately rummaged in the glove compartment. “I don’t think there’s anything sharp enough. Wait, here’s something.” She held up a pair of nail clippers. “This will work. Give me your hands.”

He held them out. Before starting, she clicked on the interior light. As she worked on cutting the thick plastic, he studied her. Beads of sweat dotted her flushed face. A slight grimace twisted her lips. He recognized the signs of suppressed pain, having seen his mother ignore her own aches for so many years as a child.

The tight bands encircling his wrists broke with a snap, releasing him and flooding his hands with a tingling sensation as unrestricted blood flowed to his fingers. “Thanks.”

She replaced the clippers in the glove compartment, snapping it closed with a gasp.

“You’re not okay.” He twisted in his seat and reached for her, but she shrank back against the passenger door.

“I’m fine. Please, let’s go.”

He glimpsed tears shimmering in her eyes before she snapped off the light.

“If you turn right, we’ll be heading back toward commerce.”

Seth bit his lower lip to keep from pressing her to tell him what was wrong and checked for traffic. His wrists ached and his fingers tingled as he pulled onto the pavement, but it was his heart that hurt the most.

No matter how many times he glanced in her direction as he drove through the darkness, Jetta never turned her head from gazing out the passenger side window. Her arms cradled her belly, her shoulders drooped with fatigue. She shivered from the cold air blowing into the SUV from the broken rear window. He had no jacket to give her to warm her up, and he couldn’t stop until they were in a safe place.

Since he couldn’t make her accept his help, he did the only thing he could think of—prayed for her and the baby’s safety, as well as giving thanks for delivering them from their captors. As they continued toward civilization and safety, underneath his prayer hummed his sadness at her rejection of his assistance. He fought back tears at his inability to reach the woman he loved, but as his mother had taught him years ago with her continual bad choices when it came to men, you could love a woman with your whole heart, but you couldn’t save her unless she let you.

ChapterThirty-One

Emily put down her phone after another fruitless attempt to get in touch with her daughter. Jetta had promised to call as soon as the shareholder meeting broke up, but other than a text saying the votes had gone in favor of Maxwell Technology’s takeover bid, she’d heard nothing for more than an hour.

A knock at the door had her turning with a smile, sure it was Jetta, but an aide poked her head inside. “Visitor for you, Ms. Ainsley.” The aide ushered in a woman about Emily’s age.

Emily frowned at the unfamiliar face. “Do I know you?”

The woman shook her head. “I’m Dolores Green. May I sit down?”

“Okay.” Emily’s curiosity heightened as the woman pulled the chair closer to her bed.

“I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m here.” Dolores ploughed ahead without waiting for a response. “Your daughter and a friend, Seth something, visited me earlier this week.”

Now Emily placed the woman’s name. “You altered invoices from SafeSense to Topher Robotics.”

“That’s what the paper trail indicated.” Tears filled the other woman’s eyes. “But I didn’t. I had no idea about the bank account in the Cayman Islands in my name with thousands of dollars. I never opened the account. Yes, I worked in accounting but as an administrative assistant. I was never a CPA. I wouldn’t know the first thing about altering invoices and embezzling money.”

Dolores’s grief appeared genuine. As tears spilled down her cheeks, Emily handed Dolores a box of tissues. She suspected there was more for the other woman to share, so she waited quietly while Dolores regained control.

“Sorry about that.” Dolores blew her nose, then wadded up the tissues. “I’ve racked my brain trying to figure out who could have set me up. I’m a simple woman. I live alone with my dogs. I can’t imagine who I could have harmed so much they’d do such a thing. I lost my job and can never work in finance again. It’s been very difficult to find a job.”

When Dolores didn’t immediately continue, Emily said, “It might not have been personal.”

That brought a fresh round of tears. “That makes it even more terrible, doesn’t it? That someone picked my name out of a hat and said, ‘I think I’ll destroy this woman’s life for the fun of it!’”

While Dolores sobbed, Emily patted her shoulder as she thought about everything the woman had said. Once she’d quieted, Emily put her theory into words. “I think someone was in a very desperate situation. They needed to shift the blame from themselves to someone else, but who? They picked my husband because he was the only person outside the Topher family who held a C-suite position at the company. They picked you because you’re unassuming and unappreciated or overlooked at work.”

“Yes, that’s true. My contributions were always ignored or downplayed. I was a nobody. One of my dogs, a darling little shiatzu named Holly, was sick, and I was trying to raise money for her treatment through a local animal rescue organization. She’d been a rescue dog. Someone anonymously donated a large sum of money that paid for her care.” Dolores blew her nose. “Of course, that was right before I was accused, and my SafeSense bosses assumed I had been the anonymous donor, using the money I had taken.”

Emily listened as Dolores recounted more details. With each word, she believed someone had scapegoated Dolores much as they had done her husband. Another innocent victim because of someone’s greed. “Someone stole millions from Topher Robotics, millions that have never been recovered. If Jay had lived, I think the case against him would have fallen apart. But he didn’t, so they swept it under the rug after a cursory internal investigation that snagged you in its net.” The more she talked, the more the scenario made sense to Emily. “I doubt the person responsible for all of this has stopped. They would have felt emboldened to continue embezzling money, especially after getting away with it.”

“That might be true, but how can we prove it after all these years?” The hope in Dolores’s eyes tugged at Emily’s heart. “I tried to contact Seth and Jetta to see if they’ve learned anything but received no reply. Then I remembered Jetta mentioning your accident and that you were in a rehab facility in Reston. I thought I’d come see you in person to make sure you understand I didn’t have anything to do with what happened to your husband.”

“I believe you. I know my daughter and Seth are trying their best to find out.”

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