Chapter 18 - David Confesses
David requested a private meeting.
No attorneys in the room.
Both lawyers hated the idea.
They allowed twenty minutes.
David looked ten years older.
“I moved the money.”
Thomas said nothing.
“Some invoices were fake.”
Silence.
“I convinced myself it was compensation.”
Thomas waited.
“Then I started believing everything belonged to me anyway.”
David’s voice cracked.
“The first time I removed your name from a brochure, I felt guilty.”
Thomas looked at him.
“The tenth?”
“I felt relieved.”
That honesty hurt.
David continued:
“You were everywhere even when you weren't there.”
“What does that mean?”
“Every loan had your name. Every expansion needed your guarantee. Every time someone praised me, part of me heard a voice saying, ‘But Thomas paid for it.’”
Thomas nodded slowly.
“I probably helped create that.”
David looked surprised.
“But you chose what you did with it.”
“Yes.”
Neither man asked forgiveness.
Not yet.
David admitted the Redwood side payment.
The management company.
The staff instructions.
Finally Thomas asked:
“The flag policy?”
David closed his eyes.
“That wasn't aimed at you originally.”
“But my photo was.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I knew Sarah had booked dinner.”
Thomas stared.
David had known.
“I didn't want you coming upstairs.”
“So you told employees I was nobody.”
David whispered:
“Yes.”
Thomas stood.
That betrayal remained the hardest.
Not the money.
David had deliberately turned his oldest friend into an outsider.
Thomas walked toward the door.
David said:
“I’m sorry.”
Thomas stopped.
“I believe you.”
David looked up hopefully.
May you like
Thomas continued:
“That doesn't mean I'm ready to forgive you.”
