Chapter 7 - The Lane Settlement
Victor was fired before lunch.
Edward did it himself.
Victor stood in the chairman’s office with his casino badge on the table.
“For dumping Agnes’s purse?”
“For guest abuse, unsupported accusations and two years of unauthorized archive access.”
Victor stared.
“I’m helping you.”
“You can help without managing my gaming floor.”
“My grandfather’s family helped build this casino.”
“That does not entitle you to a job.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“Sterlings love deciding entitlement.”
Edward’s voice hardened.
“Do not turn consequences into persecution.”
Victor looked at him.
The sentence landed.
He picked up nothing.
“You’re right.”
Edward had expected a fight.
Victor continued.
“I deserved to be fired for Agnes.”
He left.
Downstairs, he found her in the coffee shop.
She looked at him over reading glasses.
“I heard.”
“You heard fast.”
“Casinos run on gossip faster than electricity.”
Victor sat without invitation.
“I’m sorry.”
Agnes waited.
He swallowed.
“For dumping your purse.”
She said nothing.
“For accusing you without proof.”
Silence.
“For kicking your bag.”
Still nothing.
Victor looked down.
“I liked having authority.”
Agnes’s expression softened slightly.
“That is not an apology.”
“No.”
He forced himself to look at her.
“I used it to humiliate you because I thought nobody important would care.”
There it was.
Agnes closed her menu.
“That is an apology.”
“Do you forgive me?”
“No.”
Victor almost laughed.
“Fair.”
“You asked too quickly.”
He nodded.
Agnes stirred her tea.
“My husband used to apologize when he wanted discomfort to end. Real apologies begin when you accept that the other person may remain angry.”
Victor sat back.
“My father hated this place.”
“Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“He told me Sterlings stole Raymond’s company.”
“He was right.”
“Partly.”
Victor frowned.
Agnes continued.
“Raymond made mistakes too.”
“What mistakes?”
“He borrowed money without telling Arthur.”
“From criminals?”
“I don’t know whether they were criminals. They were people the gaming commission would not have liked.”
Victor absorbed it.
“Arthur used that against him.”
“Yes.”
“So Grandpa wasn’t innocent.”
“No.”
Victor looked disappointed.
Agnes leaned toward him.
“Do not make the mistake powerful families make.”
“What?”
“Thinking a person must be perfect before injustice against him counts.”
Victor stared.
That afternoon Claire obtained a copy of the 1980 Lane settlement from an archived legal file.
Raymond transferred his twenty-five percent interest to Arthur Sterling for $150,000.
The agreement contained a confidentiality clause.
It also contained a statement that Raymond accepted responsibility for “financial irregularities contributing to the west-service incident.”
Victor read it.
“He signed this?”
“Under pressure, according to Agnes.”
“He still signed.”
Claire nodded.
“Documents prove what was written. Not always why.”
Victor unfolded one of Marcus’s letters.
His father had written:
Charles Sterling contacted me in March 2018. He said Walter’s generation made mistakes and offered money if I stopped asking questions. I took it. I told myself it was restitution. It was hush money.
Victor’s voice broke.
“My father did exactly what Agnes did.”
Agnes, sitting across the room, looked up.
“Yes.”
Victor read further.
Charles knows what Walter did. Heritage pays for silence. If anything happens to me, do not trust a Sterling who says the past is dead.
Edward flinched.
Victor noticed.
“My father hated your family and still took the money.”
Edward said, “My father covered up the truth and spent forty years pretending he built this alone.”
They looked at one another.
Two grandsons of men whose flaws had outlived them.
Claire’s phone buzzed.
She opened an email from Sterling Crown accounting.
Her expression sharpened.
“Heritage made another payment.”
“When?” Edward asked.
“Last week.”
“To whom?”
“A records-destruction company.”
Agnes stood.
“How much?”
“Two hundred forty-eight thousand dollars.”
“For what?”
Claire read the invoice description.
Emergency disposal of damaged archival material.
Edward’s face went cold.
“Location?”
“The North Las Vegas storage facility.”
The same facility cleared forty-eight hours before Agnes arrived.
Victor looked at Claire.
“Can we stop destruction?”
“If anything remains, yes.”
Edward grabbed his jacket.
Claire did not move.
“What?”
She looked at him.
“We have a bigger problem.”
“What?”
“The invoice was approved through the vice chairman’s office.”
“Charles.”
“Yes.”
“And the board’s forty-eight-hour silence period?”
Claire glanced at the clock.
“Still running.”
Agnes looked at Edward.
“You wanted current conduct.”
Edward said nothing.
May you like
She continued.
“Now you have it.”
