One Drunken Mishap ✔️

28: A company thief

With us moving and problems at the company, things were getting increasingly stressful. Then there was the fact I needed to talk to Mel. I didn't want her to be blindsided by it all.

I had her come over to help me and figured we could talk. As she helped me, I decided to tell her. She was shocked.

"You don't think I'm stealing from the company, do you?!" She asked, looking at me, shocked.

"No, but I also didn't want you to hear about it from others either, just in case word got out," I told her.

She looked at me and said, "Lina, you know me. I would never do anything like that."

"I know. I told Scott I wanted to talk to you," I explained.

"Damn. I can't believe this was happening," Mel sighed.

"Well, believe it. From what we were told, someone has been doing it for a while. With everything going on, this is the perfect opportunity," I told her.

"Yeah, it has been ridiculous without you and Scott not being there."

"What do you mean?"

"Lina, many people have been doing things that Scott would never approve of at the company. Shipments aren't coming in like they should, or something is missing. Then there's been a shortage."

"If you knew about this, why didn't you say anything," I asked her.

"Because I didn't know if what I saw was right. When I would call to verify, the people would tell me that you were the one that called them," Mel said to me.

"What?"

"Yeah, they said you told them to send a certain amount. That it was okay when that's not what Scott ordered in the first place," she told me.

I looked at her. Why would someone do this? Pretend to be me - none of this made sense. This made my blood boil unless someone set me up to take the fall.

I got up and went looking for Scott. I didn't need someone to tell him things that weren't true. Who knows what he would think?

I found him on the phone talking, and from the sounds, the call didn't sound right. He hung up, and I stood there, waiting for the blow.

He turned and looked at me and sighed.

"I swear I did not do anything," I told him.

"I know."  I looked at him as he said, "Mitch said when he checked further, he pointed to things that led to you. When I asked for dates, he told me, which I knew would be impossible considering you weren't there then."

"But you did believe him at first," I said quietly.

"Lina."

"Scott, I pride myself on a few things. Being honest is one of them. To know you would believe something like that hurts," I said as I turned and walked away.

I couldn't even look at him, knowing he thought I would do something like that. I went back to packing with Mel. When she asked me if I was okay, I lied and said I was okay—two words that hold so much meaning. When people don't want to talk about things, they respond that I'm okay, even though things aren't right.

As we packed, Kara and Tara came over to help. Mel told them what happened as I stayed silent. It's where the twins differ.

"I can't believe he would even think that. What is wrong with him?" Kara huffed.

"Wait. Now, hold up. First of all, Lina is an employee. It's Scott's duty as the owner to question every employee, even her," Tara said.

"But we know Lina," she exclaimed.