Chapter 7
Ms. Brooks did not ask Pascal to take company files home.
She asked him to preserve what he had found through Harrow’s reporting process and tell the investigator handling the accident. Pascal did both. By the afternoon, the inspection report and the mechanic’s absence were part of a formal inquiry.
I watched him do what he could without telling me it would solve everything.
Rosa’s leave was still in place. Andre still needed help getting out of bed. Noah still asked each morning whether we were going home.
I told him the truth in words he could carry.
“Pascal and I are talking. We’re making sure our home feels safe before we go back.”
“Can he come here again?”
“Yes.”
Noah nodded. That was enough for him that morning.
Vivian called me after lunch.
“Pascal has made a serious mistake,” she said.
“What mistake?”
“He’s treating rumors as facts. He could lose his job.”
“He reported a question about an inspection.”
“He gave people a reason to suspect his own family.”
I looked at the photograph Noah had drawn for Andre. It was taped to Simone’s refrigerator now.
“I’m glad he asked questions,” I said.
“You’re glad because Andre stands to get money.”
“Andre stands to learn whether the platform was safe.”
Vivian exhaled sharply. “I have cared for Noah as if he were my grandson.”
“He’s grateful for the times you’ve been kind to him. Please stop involving him in this.”
“I called his school once.”
“You told Pascal you wanted to talk to Noah about his real family.”
“He needs to understand that Pascal is the one raising him.”
“His father is raising him too.”
Vivian ended the call.
I wrote down what she had said and put my phone away. For years, I had accepted her little corrections about Noah. She would remind him that Pascal paid for our house or ask why he needed two fathers at a school event. I had answered each remark. I had not realized how many Noah might have heard.
That night, I asked him a question.
“When Grandma Vivian talks about your dad, how does it make you feel?”
Noah pulled the blanket around his knees.
“Like I’m supposed to say I like Pascal more.”
“You never have to say that.”
“I love them both.”
“I know.”
He leaned against me. “Do they know?”
“They do. I’ll keep telling them until you feel sure.”
Pascal visited the next evening. I told him what Noah had said. He sat very still.
“Mom says things like that?”
“She has.”
“I should have stopped her.”
“You can start now.”
He looked toward the living room, where Noah and Simone were playing.
“I told her she can’t contact his school or talk to him about Andre. She’s angry.”
“You’re allowed to protect him while she’s angry.”
Pascal nodded.
A few days later, Andre was moved to a regular room. Noah visited with Leila. Pascal sent oranges after asking Andre whether he wanted them.
Andre laughed when Leila carried the bag in.
“He really brought them?”
“Noah drew them,” I said.
Andre ate one and asked me to thank Pascal. It was a small, ordinary kindness. I held on to it.
Then Ms. Brooks called.
The mechanic whose name appeared on the inspection report had confirmed he had not signed it. Rosa’s photograph showed the platform was marked cleared before that supposed inspection. The safety investigator had asked Harrow for its original maintenance records.
“Will they bring Rosa back?” I asked.
“I hope so. She’s getting advice on the leave separately.”
At home, Simone told me Pascal had left a message while I was at the hospital. I called him back.
“I’m suspended,” he said.
My heart sank. “For reporting the inspection?”
“Vivian says I shared concerns outside my job. The company is reviewing it.”
“Come over.”
He arrived twenty minutes later. I made tea while he sat at Simone’s table.
“I thought I was prepared for her to be angry,” he said. “I didn’t think she’d take my job.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ve spent my whole working life there.” He looked at his hands. “I kept thinking if I found the right way to explain, she’d listen.”
I set a cup in front of him.
“You can still choose what you do next.”
“I know.” He looked up. “I’ve already told the investigator what I saw.”
We sat together until Noah came in. Pascal put aside his phone and helped him with a puzzle.
For a while, the room felt calm.
Then Leila called.
“Andre remembered something else,” she said. “After the first failure, Rosa heard Martin tell someone they couldn’t shut the platform down before Friday.”
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“Who was he talking to?”
“She couldn’t see his face. Andre thinks he knows why Friday mattered.”
