Lauren Wahl could not process what her husband was saying. He must have gone mad, she thought. Why, there was no earthly reason that they couldn’t move into their wonderful new house. It was almost done! How could he be putting it on the market? Weak-kneed, Lauren sank into the sofa and watched her husband pace the living room. He was in a full-on rage. Being forced to grovel for his job in front of Adela had pushed him over the edge.
Her free-spending days were over, he shouted at her. He was never again going to be chained to a job for the money. He was replacing the Maserati with a normal car, and if he had to, he yelled, he was replacing her with a normal wife. He stood over Lauren as she cowered on the sofa. Was she on board with the new program, he asked, or did she want to go it alone?
Summoning a contrite smile, Lauren looked up at her husband and whispered a sweet, “yes, dear.”
Lupe stood sullenly in front of Adela’s desk. “You were the one who tipped off the media, weren’t you?” Adela demanded. “But why? Do they pay you? They claim that they don’t pay sources but I wonder. I know you were eavesdropping when I talked to the detective. But you jumped to the wrong conclusion. You spread a preposterous story among the staff about my father being murdered. That rumor got to Jose. The poor man must have been out of his mind, thinking that he was going to be found out for stealing and then be accused of a murder he didn’t commit. No wonder he flew off the handle when he was arrested.” Lupe’s face reddened. “Do you realize what’s going to happen to Jose?” Adela asked. “I was prepared to offer him a way out. If he made even partial restitution I was going to drop the charges. But now what happens to Jose is not up to me. The District Attorney is going to decide. Jose will be charged with a violent crime because he held a knife to me. He may get jail time and he’ll have a felony on his record. His life is changed forever.”
“I didn’t mean for this to happen,” Lupe said. “When Mr. Rios died I knew I would be let go. I called a lady that I worked for before, to ask her if she would give me a reference and maybe pass on some leads about jobs. She’s a TV reporter. She asked me a lot of questions about Mr. Rios and about what happened. When I told her about the audit she got all excited. After that she kept calling me. She was so interested that it made me think something was wrong. Now I know that my imagination got the best of me. I should have kept my mouth shut.”
“I know that you didn’t intend to hurt Jose,” Adela said. “These last few days have been very difficult for everyone. When people are under pressure, sometimes they do things that they later regret.”
“Should I tell the police what I did?”
“You should,” Adela said. “Maybe when the District Attorney gets all the facts I can persuade him to bring lesser charges against Jose.”