Page 111 of Forget Me

“Mimi?” His face cleared. “Of course! Mimi, will you step in?” He named a salary in the range I’d researched.

“I—” Oh, shit. I’d been comfortable with the idea of the assistant role, following someone else’s lead. But being the leader myself? “Am I qualified?”

Natalie, who still had her hands on my shoulders, leaned in and spoke into my ear. “I’d help, I promise.”

“Help.” I grabbed the word like a lifeline. “I’d need lots of help.”

“Whoever you want,” he said. “You can hire a staff. And an auditor.”

My cheeks burned. How had I missed Larissa’s embezzlement? “Are you sure you want me?”

“I can’t think of a better candidate. I’ve seen your good work. Besides, Nat vouches for you.”

“Can I think about it and let you know Monday?”

“Of course.” He looked down at his phone. “Looks like they found Larissa. I have to go deal with her.”

“What are you going to do?” Natalie rubbed her hands together. “Have the police cuff her?”

“You’ve watched too many police procedurals, Nat. For now, I’m going to see what she has to say for herself.”

“Mimi and I are coming with.”

“We are?” I blinked. Did I want to see Larissa taken down?

She’d stolen money from the kids we were supposed to be helping. Hell, yes, I did.

Jackson’s security team had detained Larissa in a small conference room off the lobby. Jackson spoke to the team lead, a tall, muscular woman with close-cropped hair. “Where’s Flavio?”

“Couldn’t find him. But he left his date.” She nodded at Larissa, who lifted her nose into the air.

“This is ridiculous, Jackson. I don’t know what Miriam thinks I’ve done—”

“She doesn’t think you’ve done anything. I do. I think you’ve been stealing money that was supposed to help kids.”

I ducked behind Natalie, but Larissa’s frosty blue gaze found me. “Miriam doesn’t know anything about how nonprofits are run. She doesn’t get it. I’ll show you exactly—”

I stepped out of Natalie’s shadow. “Maybe I don’t know how to run a nonprofit, but I understand accounting. And taxes. I think you do, too. What you’ve done isn’t right. I’ve got the receipts—or the lack thereof—to prove it.”

“Do you?” She raised her eyebrows, and a smile teased on her lips. “Jackson, I think if you look at Miriam’s personal accounts, you’ll see that she’s the one who took the money out of the emergency fund.”

Cold realization washed through my veins. “You were trying to pin this on me? To make me take the blame for your theft? I knew that money wasn’t mine. I had PayMo reverse the charges.”

“Besides,” Jackson said, “I can trace the IP. I’m pretty sure I know where it’ll lead.”

For the first time, fear crossed her smooth face. “You can’t do this to me. I have connections. People who’ll see to it you can’t prove anything.”

Jackson shrugged. “I don’t have to prove anything. Your employment is at-will, and I no longer need your services. I trust Mimi. She has evidence of what you’ve done. We can probably find more from the previous nonprofits you’ve been associated with. So be smart, Larissa. Get out of town and find honest work in the private sector. If I hear that you’re trying to steal from another nonprofit, I’ll take you down.”

Larissa’s chest heaved, but she remained silent. Her expression shuttered. “I don’t think I want to stay here, anyway. I’m leaving.”

With a cautious look at the security chief, she slipped toward the door but stopped next to me. “Watch out, Miriam. I see how you want to be part of this world.” She glanced at the Joneses. “You’re like me, ambitious. Putting on a show for them. Wanting the spotlight. Well, that spotlight can burn you.”

“We’re not alike.” She was more right than I cared to admit. I had wanted to be like her, to soar like she’d done. But now I saw she hadn’t flown at all. She’d used invisible strings to create the illusion of flight. And I’d rather toil in obscurity forever than do what she’d done. “I’d never steal.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Wouldn’t you? Women like you and me don’t have the safety nettheydo. We have to claw and scratch our way to the top. It costs money to look like we belong. And sometimes you have to fake it until you make it.”

On the surface, what she’d saidsounded a lot like Mom’s mantra ofsmarts, drive, and confidence. But she’d twisted it in a way I never would. “I’d rather be poor and unemployed than take money that was donated to help children.”

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