"Victor," Richard said when he had finished, "you are relieved of your duties effective immediately, pending the formal misconduct review. We will document the mistreatment of this customer, the destruction of his property, and the threat you made against an employee who tried to correct you. You are not to supervise staff or handle customer transactions while that review is underway."
Victor looked toward David, suddenly desperate. "I made a mistake," he said. "I was trying to protect the store. These things happen in luxury retail, and I genuinely thought..."
David did not let him finish. "What you thought is precisely what concerns me," he said. "You didn't make a payment error. You made a decision about the kind of man I was, and then you acted as though that decision gave you permission to destroy something that belonged to me."
"I've given seven years to this place," Victor protested. "My sales numbers are among the highest in the district." Richard looked at him with an expression that suggested the boast had made matters worse. "Your years of service and your sales figures will be considered as part of a complete review," he replied. "They do not excuse what happened."
Victor turned to Emma, seeking someone weaker to blame. "She escalated this," he said. "If she had let me handle it, none of this would have happened."
Emma's stomach tightened, but she held his gaze. "You cut his card," she answered. "I asked you to check it. I didn't make the decision for you."
Richard stepped between them, not physically blocking Victor so much as ending the chain of authority he had used against her. "Emma will not be retaliated against for speaking up," he said. "Her account will be taken separately. And until the investigation is complete, you are not to contact her about what she witnessed."
Theo remained near the door. Victor looked at the guard, perhaps imagining for the first time what it would feel like to be escorted out of a place where he had once been able to summon security for other people. Richard did not order any public humiliation. He quietly asked Victor to surrender the store keys, go with a human-resources representative to the upstairs office, and refrain from discussing the matter with the other staff during the review.
For the first time that afternoon, Victor seemed smaller than the suit he was wearing. His face was flushed, but his voice had lost its authority. He looked once more toward David, hoping perhaps that the owner would offer a forgiving phrase that might make the incident disappear. David offered none.
As Victor walked toward the back corridor, he passed the display where the sapphire necklace had been returned to its velvet case. He had been so sure that the older man could not afford it, so sure that Emma's kindness had been a costly distraction, that he had never once asked