Lydia started crying. “I thought he was helping. He said he wanted to make things easier. He promised to handle the payments so we could focus on hosting.”
The sound of her voice made it hard to breathe. “How much?”
Dex hesitated. “Enough to matter.”
I gripped the edge of the desk to keep my hands from shaking. “And the vendors?”
“They’ve been paid. I covered them. The glassware, the ice, the shuttles, the servers. No one left unpaid,” Dex told me.
I took a deep breath. “You paid them? Yourself?”
“Yes.”
“With what?”
“My credit card or by electronically transferring the funds from my bank account.”
I didn’t know what to say. My throat ached, but the words stayed caught behind pride and shock. Lydia’s sob broke the silence. “I ruined everything.”
Mom’s voice came from the hallway. “What’s going on?”
She stepped inside, still smiling from whatever conversation she had been having, until she saw Lydia’s face. “Oh no, sweetheart. What happened?”
Lydia couldn’t answer. She pressed her palms to her eyes. Jane appeared behind Mom, and Dad followed, his expression tightening as he took in the scene.
Dex spoke first. “There’s been an issue with the funds. It’s under control.”
Mom frowned. “What kind of issue?”
Lydia’s voice cracked. “Gavin stole it. All of it.”
Mom gasped. “He wouldn’t.”
“He did,” Dex said quietly. “Gavin is gone and the money with him.”
Dad crossed his arms, grimacing. I realized the news didn’t come as a surprise to him. At some point during the night, Dex must have told him.
Yet he hadn’t told me until now.
“How much money?” I woodenly asked.
Dex didn’t sugarcoat it. “Perhaps thirty to fifty thousand. I can’t really say since we don’t know what amount of money people donated to charity tonight.”
Mom sank into a chair. “Oh, Lord. The papers will hear about this. People will think we’re fools! The community will hate us and we’ll be ruined.”
Jane crouched beside her. “We’ll fix it.”
Dex nodded. “We will. I’ve already started the process. I contacted my firm’s legal department and they will file reports with the bank and police first thing in the morning.”
Mom looked up at him, dazed. “You did all that tonight?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
Lydia’s voice came out in a whisper. “I trusted Gavin. He said all the right things. He made me feel like he believed in me.”
I moved toward her and pulled her into my arms. “You wanted to help. You didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“I wanted you to be proud of me,” she said, muffled against my shoulder.
