Yet he had later told Victor he could operate the dining room under a management option.
Thomas asked whether Leon had used the phrase sold outright.
“No,” Leon answered.
“I told him he could run it.
He chose to hear what he wanted.”
Leon said that Dorian had gradually isolated him from Mara and the original employees.
Every concern was presented as an obstacle to keeping the business alive.
By the time Ruth questioned missing contributions, Leon had begun relying on Dorian for every financial report.
He had signed documents he barely understood because the bills were overdue and creditors were threatening to shut down the kitchen.
“That explains why you trusted him,” Thomas said.
“It doesn’t answer whether the documents were valid.”
Leon accepted the distinction.
He reached for a folder beside his chair and removed a faded postcard sent by Ruth shortly before her death.
On the back she had written that she still had copies of the original participation schedule.
She asked Leon to meet her privately.
He had not replied.
The shame on his face was plain.
“I told myself we would straighten it out after the restaurant was stable,” Leon said.
“Then years passed.”
“Did you know Dorian was negotiating a new sale?”
“He said an investor wanted to buy the equipment.
He never asked me to sign a deed or stock transfer.”
Thomas made careful notes.
He did not record Leon’s recollections as incontrovertible facts.
He requested permission to obtain the underlying agreements from Leon’s attorney and the company archive.
Leon signed an authorization in front of an independent witness after Thomas read it aloud.
The meeting exhausted him, and Thomas stopped asking questions before Leon’s speech deteriorated.
In the parking lot, Audrey said that Leon’s account created problems for everyone.
If he had neglected his duties, he might share responsibility for the harm even if Dorian committed fraud.
Thomas agreed.
Friendship could not be a substitute for accuracy.
Claire returned from the pharmacy carrying Jonah’s inhaler and found Regina’s message on her phone.
The hospital offered her a morning shift, pending routine background checks.
The pay was lower than she had earned on busy steakhouse nights, but it came with predictable hours and basic benefits.
She accepted.
Later she called Audrey to report the severance offer and ask whether Thomas still wanted the photograph of Ruth.
Audrey said yes, provided Claire retained the original.
They arranged to meet in a small conference room at the trust’s office.
Thomas arrived with a cup of tea and no coat.
Without the torn jacket, he looked less mysterious and more like a tired grandfather who had forgotten to rest.
Claire told him she had found a new job.
