Regret is the Punishment novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Eleven Million

The video clip was there, and I watched it standing up in the hall with my sister's phone in both hands.

It showed the back of my sedan, my brake lights and the line of boats on either side.

The horn blared underneath it all.

Then a man's voice, raw and hoarse, shouted through the cab over the siren.

"Move the car! Move the damn car! There's a kid in a house down there!"

I knew that voice.

I'd heard it say my name in the dark for nine years.

The clip didn't show his face.

It only showed my brake lights not changing.

By Monday morning it had eleven million views.

Somebody had found my name and posted my photo from the Nimick Marine holiday party.

Somebody else had found the address of the house.

I walked into the Nimick Marine lobby at five minutes to eight, because HR had emailed me to come in at eight.

I did not need to be told what it meant.

The receptionist, a girl I had trained myself, stared at the desk when I walked past.

Upstairs, the big conference room was full.

It was the Monday all-hands.

Forty-odd people sat around the long table or stood against the glass.

Every face turned to me.

At the head of the table sat Cyril, in a navy jacket, with his hands folded.

The HR director stood beside him holding a folder.

"Sue," she said. "Thank you for coming in."

"We wanted to do this with the team present, given the circumstances."

"You wanted an audience," I said.

She flushed.

"The company has been named in the press. Nimick Marine can't employ someone whose conduct has brought us this kind of attention."

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