Chapter 4 - SHE FOUND OUT HE WAS TESTING HER
Nancy learned about the test six weeks after Edward gave her the card.
And the way she learned was worse than the test itself.
Valerie waited until Edward had left for a board meeting downtown.
She found Nancy organizing shelter deliveries in the breakfast room.
“Nancy.”
“Yes?”
“I think you deserve to know something.”
Nancy looked up.
Valerie placed a folder on the table.
Her stomach tightened when she saw her name.
Integrity Audit.
“What is that?”
“Open it.”
Nancy did.
Photographs of receipts.
Credit card statements.
Copies of purchase logs.
Notes.
Every transaction she had made since her first day.
Gas for the estate SUV.
Groceries.
Cleaning products.
Replacement linens.
Thirty-eight dollars for storage bins.
Fourteen dollars and seventeen cents for light bulbs.
All documented.
All watched.
Nancy’s mouth went dry.
“What is this?”
“The card.”
“What about it?”
“It was never simply a household card.”
Valerie folded her arms.
“It was a test.”
Nancy stared at her.
“Edward does this with every new employee who has purchasing authority.”
“Every employee?”
“Every one.”
Nancy turned another page.
There were handwritten notes.
Subject displaying expected restraint.
Continue observation.
No suspicious charges to date.
Financial pressure may be relevant.
Nancy stopped.
Financial pressure.
She knew immediately what it meant.
Her grandmother’s surgery.
Her medical bills.
Her savings.
Edward had known.
And while she had been worrying about whether Janine would lose her sight, someone had been sitting upstairs recording whether Nancy would steal.
“How long?” Nancy asked.
Valerie hesitated just long enough to make the answer hurt more.
“The file is still open.”
Nancy looked up.
“He’s still testing me?”
“He never authorized me to close it.”
The room suddenly felt cold.
Nancy remembered teaching Edward to make coffee.
Telling him about abandoning her scholarship to care for Janine after her grandfather died.
Listening while he told her about foster care.
Driving to her grandmother’s home.
The shelter.
The conversations.
The laughter.
Every memory changed shape.
Had he been talking to her because he liked her?
Or because she was a subject?
Valerie took the folder.
“I thought you had a right to know.”
Nancy’s voice was barely audible.
“Thank you.”
That evening, Edward came home shortly after seven.
Nancy was setting out dinner.
“I spoke with the shelter director,” he said. “They want to increase pickup to twice a week.”
“I’ll arrange it, Mr. Townsend.”
Edward stopped.
She had not called him that in weeks.
“Mr. Townsend?”
Nancy placed a plate on the table.
“Yes, sir?”
“Did I do something?”
“No.”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m working.”
“You can do both.”
She looked at him.
Her expression was polite.
That frightened him more than anger would have.
“Dinner is ready.”
“Nancy.”
“If you’ll excuse me, I have laundry upstairs.”
She walked away.
Edward watched her go.
For the next three days, she was perfect.
Punctual.
Efficient.
Respectful.
She stopped drinking coffee with him in the kitchen.
She stopped teasing him.
She stopped telling him when he had pushed the wrong button on the machine.
She stopped being Nancy.
Finally, Edward asked Valerie.
“Something happened.”
Valerie looked at her computer.
“She seems fine.”
“No. She seems professional.”
Valerie looked at him.
“Isn’t that what she’s supposed to be?”
“She used to be herself.”
“Perhaps she realized boundaries were becoming unclear.”
Edward studied her.
“Did you say something?”
“No.”
Valerie’s answer was immediate.
Too immediate.
Edward walked away unconvinced.
That evening, Nancy sat at Janine’s kitchen table.
Her grandmother’s surgery was four days away.
Janine could still see only blurred shapes, but she knew Nancy well enough to hear unhappiness before Nancy said a word.
“What happened?”
Nancy looked down at her hands.
“I’m quitting.”
Janine became still.
“Why?”
Nancy told her everything.
The black card.
The audit.
The receipts.
The weekly reports.
The file that had never been closed.
“He thought I would steal,” Nancy said.
“He was watching to see if you would.”
“Yes.”
Janine considered this.
“Do you think he’s a bad man?”
Nancy opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
“I don’t know.”
“That was not my question.”
Nancy stood and walked toward the sink.
“He’s paranoid. Controlling. He assumes people will disappoint him.”
“That still wasn’t my question.”
Nancy turned.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
Nancy’s anger dissolved.
Her shoulders dropped.
“My gut says he’s lonely.”
Janine nodded.
“A lonely man who got rich enough to build walls nobody could climb.”
“That doesn’t excuse it.”
“No.”
“He sat across from me for weeks. He knew about the medical bills. He knew I was desperate.”
“Did you take anything?”
“Of course not.”
“Then his test told him who you were.”
May you like
“But he never told me who he was.”
Janine had no answer for that.
