Chapter 14 - Maria’s Table

Maria Santos had worked for the Ashfords fourteen months.
Rose accused her of scratching an eighteenth-century side table.
Photographs showed fresh damage.
Maria insisted she had never touched it.
She was dismissed.
Paid nothing extra beyond what was legally owed.
She lost an employer reference.
The table was professionally restored.
The restoration company’s technician remembered something.
Rose had contacted them for an estimate the day before the damage was supposedly discovered.
Why request an estimate before damage exists?
Rose’s attorney said she had noticed earlier marks.
Possible.
Then the technician produced Rose’s photograph.
Timestamp:
The previous morning.
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The scratch was already visible.
Maria was not even working that day.