“That’s what we’re determining.”

David opened the folder.

There wasn’t one transaction.

There were twenty-seven.

Hotels.

Restaurants.

A luxury watch.

Airfare.

A resort stay.

Designer purchases.

Some had been entered as client entertainment. Others were classified as business development expenses.

The unexplained total was approximately $285,000.

I stopped turning pages.

“This can’t all be Jason.”

David slid one sheet toward me.

There were electronic approval records beside several transactions.

Ashley Miller.

I leaned back.

For a few seconds, neither of us spoke.

“Does she know you’re looking at this?”

“No.”

“Does Jason?”

“Not yet.”

That answer made me uncomfortable.

“Then why am I here?”

David closed the folder.

“Because you identified the original public evidence, and I wanted to confirm exactly how you obtained it before we move forward.”

I showed him Ashley’s public post again and explained the phone call with Jason immediately before it.

David took notes.

When I finished, he asked one more question.

“Did Jason ever tell you he was having financial problems?”

I almost laughed.

Instead, I opened the spreadsheet on my phone showing five months of unpaid support.

“Only when the money was for his daughter.”

David looked at the screen but didn’t comment.

A knock came at the conference room door.

Someone spoke quietly to him from the hallway.

When David returned, he picked up the folder.

“Jason is on his way upstairs.”

I stood.

“He knows?”

David shook his head.

“From what we’ve been told, he thinks this meeting concerns a promotion.”

Before I could respond, I heard voices outside.

Jason’s voice was one of them.

And then Ashley’s.

I looked at David.

“She’s here too?”

He glanced toward the door.

“Apparently Jason brought her.”

A few seconds later, they walked past the glass wall.

Jason was wearing the navy suit Lily had helped him choose for Father’s Day two years earlier.

Ashley walked beside him.

And hanging from her arm was the black Chanel bag.

The same one from the photograph.

He Thought He Was Getting Promoted

I wasn’t originally supposed to sit in the main meeting.

David asked me to remain nearby in case there were questions about the screenshot or the timeline, so I waited in a smaller conference room across the hall.

Through the glass, I saw Jason shake hands with two executives.

He was smiling.

Ashley placed the Chanel bag on the table beside her chair.

A laptop opened.

The door closed.

For almost fifteen minutes, I couldn’t hear anything.

Then David stepped out.

“We need you for a minute.”

When I entered, Jason’s expression changed immediately.

“What is she doing here?”

Ashley turned around so quickly that her chair moved.

“Megan?”

Nobody answered them.

One of the executives gestured toward an empty chair.

I sat.

On the screen was Ashley’s Instagram photograph.

The Chanel bag.

The champagne.

The receipt.

Jason looked at Ashley.

Then at me.

Then back at the screen.

“What is this?”

David folded his hands on the table.

“We’d like you to explain the purchase.”

Jason stared at the receipt.

“That’s personal.”

“The merchant may be personal. The payment method was not.”

Jason’s face changed.

Ashley reached for the bag and pulled it closer to her chair.

David continued.

“The purchase was charged to an account ending in 7621.”

Jason cleared his throat.

“Then I used the wrong card.”

Nobody spoke.

He looked around the table.

“Seriously. That’s it. I have multiple corporate cards. I grabbed the wrong one. I’ll reimburse it.”

David clicked to the next slide.

A hotel charge.

Then another.

A restaurant.

A watch.

Airfare.

A resort.

The dates covered more than a year.

Jason stopped talking.

“These are twenty-seven transactions currently under review,” David said. “The unexplained amount is approximately $285,000.”

Ashley turned toward Jason.

“You told me those were approved.”

Jason looked at her.

“You processed half of them.”

“Because you told me to.”

“You approved them.”

“Because you’re my boss.”

Jason’s voice sharpened.

“Don’t do that, Ashley.”

She stared at him.

“Don’t do what?”

“Act like you didn’t know.”

The room went quiet.