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“What money?” Iris asked, her voice just above a whisper.
“The money that’s been disappearing from this house,” Henry said, his gaze sharp. “And don’t try to deny it. I know it’s you.”
There it was, the accusation hanging in the air. He could see the tension in Iris’s posture, the way she clenched her fists in her lap. She opened her mouth to speak but then closed it again, struggling to find the right words.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Iris finally said, her voice shaking ever so slightly. But Henry wasn’t convinced.
“I’ve been losing money for weeks now,” he continued, leaning forward. “And it’s all happened after you started working here. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
Finally, she spoke, her voice barely a whisper. “I know where it went, but I can’t tell you.”
Henry’s heart skipped a beat. “What do you mean you can’t tell me?”
She looked at him, her eyes filled with a mix of regret and determination. “Because if I tell you, you’ll never forgive me.”
Henry’s pulse quickened. “Tell me, Iris. Now.”
She hesitated for a long moment, then finally, she spoke the words that shocked Henry to his core.
“I took the money, Henry. But I didn’t do it for myself,” she said, her voice breaking. “I did it to protect someone else.”
“Who?” Henry asked, his voice trembling with disbelief.
Iris closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I did it to protect my niece. She needs the money for her schooling, for a better future. You don’t understand. I was desperate.”
Henry sat back in his chair, stunned by the revelation. His anger melted away, replaced by confusion and empathy. The woman he had been so certain was lying to him had just confessed to everything. And yet, it wasn’t as simple as he had thought.
“You’re stealing to help your niece?” Henry asked, his voice softening.
Iris nodded, tears filling her eyes. “I never meant for it to get this far. I thought if I could just get by, I could fix everything. But I couldn’t. I made a mistake, Henry. I’m so sorry.”
Henry ran a hand through his hair, trying to process everything. The guilt, the betrayal, the kindness hidden behind the theft. Everything was a tangled mess. But as he looked at Iris, the woman who had confessed her crime so openly, something inside him shifted. He couldn’t be angry at her anymore. He understood. But what could he do?