They both paused, then Christian offered her a seat. “Please. Tell me. How did you find me? Are you all right? Is something wrong with Raina—”
“Yes, she’s fine. In fact, she was here less than twenty minutes ago.”
“Raina was here?” Christian asked, his heart beating rapidly. He looked back out toward the audience. “Where is she now?”
“She left when she realized who you are,” Kelly said in a flat voice. “Look it’s a long story.”
“Come, let me take you where we can have a little privacy,” Christian said hurriedly when he heard the hesitation in her voice.
He took her to an office and he shut the door behind them.
“It’s like this, Mr. …”
“Call me Christian.”
Kelly started talking. And talking. And talking. She found that once she started she couldn’t stop. She barely took a breath, and she didn’t let Christian interject a single question.
“Raina was innocent. She did not take any money from the company. She never would, she’s an honest and kind person. You were with her! You must know that!” Kelly’s voice accused him and it shot through him, stinging like an arrow piercing his heart.
Christian held on to a thin thread of hope that his suspicions had been wrong. All the months since he had left Palm Beach had been hell for him. He missed Raina day and night and he questioned his judgment constantly. How could he have been so wrong about a person?
“Your Uncle Roger is the one behind it all. He set Raina up and now he’s about to do the same for me.”
“Why would he pick on her or you for that matter?” Christian said, his mind racing with possibilities.
“Because we wouldn’t sleep with him.”
Kelly began detailing Roger’s continual abuse of the staff, and Christian’s mouth dropped open. How could he have been so blind? That Roger was capable of such disgusting behavior was nothing he had wanted to see, he admitted to himself. Kelly’s numerous stories about the many incidents over the years started adding up. Christian recognized some truth in what she was saying as he thought back to the number of staffers that had been let go by Roger.
Most of the names on the list had been young women, Christian realized with dismay.
Christian thought back to the scene he had seen between Raina and his uncle that day. He zoomed in on the memory of her expression. Was it possible that Raina had not worn the face of a woman in ecstasy, but had worn an expression of fear? According to Kelly, she had been petr
ified. And what had he done? Instead of coming to her aid, he had left his uncle in there with his Raina.
“Did he hurt her?” His tone was murderous, his hands balled into fists. He wanted to punch his uncle in the face and break every bone in his body.
“No, he didn’t. Let me show you something on my tablet, and then you’ll really believe me.”
She removed her tablet from her bag and turned it on. She put it at an angle where Christian could observe over her shoulder. What he saw turned his stomach. He couldn’t believe that Roger was capable of such violence and against someone so helpless.
“God!” he muttered, completely sickened.
When it was over, Christian said to Kelly: “I’m so sorry. That is absolutely unacceptable! Are you okay? Is Raina? Where is she—I need to see her.”
She nodded, “I’m fine.”
Kelly went on to tell him about Roger’s schemes and how he had implicated Raina. Christian felt murderous. He clenched and unclenched his fists. After all the work he had done to ensure that Del Mar employees were well taken care of, his very own uncle was destroying it all, and worse, destroying lives.
A thought crossed his mind, one that had been bothering him. If Raina hadn’t stolen money, then where had she gotten money from.
“What about the money that Raina spoke of that day in your office?”
Kelly looked at him blankly.
“The five hundred thousand?” He prompted her memory.
“Oh that? It was from the insurance company of the driver who killed her sister and brother-in-law.”