Chapter 6 - THE MONEY THEY HID IN CAMILLE'S LOCKER
Three days later, someone found twenty thousand dollars inside Camille's staff locker.
Rosalia nearly smiled.
Camille didn't.
“Don't touch it.”
The housekeeper who found it froze.
Camille called Marcus herself.
Photos.
Witnesses.
Bag sealed.
Chain of custody.
The money had been planted after the attack.
Security footage proved Camille hadn't entered the locker room during that window.
So who had?
Thomas Keene.
Hours before he disappeared.
Another attempt to frame her.
Then investigators found a draft statement on Keene's laptop.
It accused Camille of accepting money to let an unknown person through the estate.
Her name had been prepared before Vincent was attacked.
Camille sat down when she learned that.
For days, she'd held herself together.
Now her hands shook.
Vincent had been released home but remained under strict medical supervision.
He found her in the kitchen.
“You okay?”
She laughed without humor.
“Apparently somebody prepared my confession before I knew I was committing a crime.”
Vincent sat carefully.
The incision still hurt.
“You're cleared.”
“That isn't the point.”
He waited.
“I work here.”
“Yes.”
“I clean rooms.”
“Yes.”
“I don't have your name.”
“No.”
“So somebody decided I was disposable enough to frame.”
Vincent's expression changed.
Camille continued:
“And your entire family almost believed it.”
He looked away.
That hurt because it was true.
“My system did that.”
“Yes.”
“I didn't.”
“You built the system.”
Silence.
For years, everyone told Vincent what he wanted to hear.
Camille didn't.
He looked at her.
“What should I change?”
She almost said:
Everything.
Instead:
“Ask the people who work here.”
Vincent frowned.
“What?”
“Not your security chief.”
“Not your family.”
“The people who clean bathrooms.”
“Drive cars.”
“Cook your food.”
“People who know which doors don't lock and which supervisors scare employees.”
Vincent stared.
Then understood.
Within a week, outside auditors interviewed household staff privately.
Anonymous reporting channels were created.
Access badges redesigned.
No employee could be investigated solely through Castellano security if a family member was involved.
Rosalia called it excessive.
Vincent answered:
May you like
“Camille almost went to jail because my cousin needed a convenient poor woman.”
Nobody argued after that.
