Page 94 of Never Too Late
‘The funniest thing was that he took it, which gave the police plenty of time to get there.’
‘Do you know what happened to him?’
‘We chose not to press charges in the end.’
‘Really?’
He shrugged. ‘He was, how do you call, a chancer?’
‘Still a crime.’
‘True. And believe me, we went back and forth about it. But in the end, we decided to ask them to let him off with a warning. This time. It was the first time he’d done it. He’d been a disgruntled employee at the place where Christophe had worked and felt he could do better with a little blurring of the lines.’
‘Lying.’
‘That too.’
‘And Gabby was OK with this?’
He blew out his lips. ‘Ah.Non. Not for some time. But eventually, we agreed.’ He chuckled. ‘It was a long night!’
I knew his sister well. ‘I bet. Did your willingness to give someone a second chance work out?’
‘He went back to college to study finance and business and passed top of his class. Once he was given the knowledge, he excelled at it, rather than just floundering. I already had the floundering part covered.’
‘Stop being so hard on yourself. I’m glad it worked out for him although I’m only sorry your original plan didn’t. It was a good and sensible one.’
‘I know. But perhaps things were meant to be.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘It was the last straw for me. I was burned out. Everybody could see and I couldn’t do it any more. Gabby had had more control and sense in moments than I had in the whole time I’d been made CEO. She wanted a change from fashion and so proposed that I stepped down and she take over.’
‘And you were happy with that?’
‘Incredibly! Although not as happy as she was when she fired me in the very next moment.’ His laughter drifted about in the still air of the quiet street. ‘I did tell her she couldn’t fire me as I’d already stepped down.’
‘And?’
‘Oh, she knew it but couldn’t resist the opportunity to fire her big brother. Or at least pretend to.’
‘That sounds like Gabby.’
He nodded, smiling as he led us to the door of a beautiful townhouse. I looked for the buzzers, wondering how many apartments were within, but there were none.
‘What is it?’ he asked, catching my puzzled glance.
‘This is still one house?’
‘Yes.’
‘Yours?’
He lowered his lashes momentarily as he nodded. I knew the price of Paris property. This was literally a fortune!
He turned the key, opened the door and stepped back to allow me to enter first.
‘The fake financial director who became an excellent one advised me, once I began to make a little money, to invest it in property. I took his advice.’
