The accountant, a quiet woman named Teresa, spent hours studying the transactions.
One afternoon, she called me into her office.
"Clara, I want to show you something."
She turned her monitor toward me.
A series of payments appeared.
They had been made over eighteen months.
Small amounts at first.
Then larger ones.
The total exceeded thirty thousand euros.
I gripped the edge of the desk.
"Where did it go?"
"Mostly to entities associated with the Rivas family company. We still need to determine who authorized each transaction and on what basis."
I stared at the screen.
Thirty thousand euros.
That was money I'd earned while working weekends.
Money I'd saved instead of taking holidays.
Money I'd planned to use to hire another employee.
My eyes burned.
Teresa gently pushed a box of tissues toward me.
I didn't take one.
Not yet.
"Can we prove it?"
"We can establish the money trail," she said. "Your lawyer can advise what it means legally."
