Chapter 3
Anna.
My daughter.
My only child.
I had not spoken her name in a decade.
Not since she married Miguel Rivera, a maintenance worker from Factory Number One.
Not since she stood in my study with tears in her eyes and said love mattered more than inheritance.
I told her to choose.
She chose him.
So I chose my pride.
I cut her off.
I told myself she would come back.
She never did.
Now Melissa stood before me with smoke rising on the screen behind her.
“What letters?” I asked.
Melissa opened a folder with shaking hands.
Copies.
Dozens.
Some handwritten.
Some emailed.
Anna Rivera.
Warnings about faulty wiring.
Blocked exits.
Missing safety inspections.
A boiler leak.
Workers afraid to complain.
My signature was stamped on several responses.
Dismissed.
Deferred.
Noncritical.
I had never seen them.
Or worse, I had never cared enough to ask.
My chest tightened.
“Where is Anna?”
Melissa’s eyes filled.
“I don’t know.”
“What about Miguel?”
Her face changed.
That was when I knew.
“What happened?”
“He died eighteen months ago.”
The room spun.
“In my factory?”
She nodded.
“An equipment accident. The settlement was handled by legal.”
I gripped the desk.
“And no one told me?”
“Victor said you didn’t want family matters brought up.”
Victor.
My chief operating officer.
My sister’s son.
The nephew I trusted because he had my blood and my ambition.
I looked back at the screen.
The fire.
The workers.
The smoke.
The boy.
Who you forgot.
I whispered, “That child is Anna’s son.”
May you like
Melissa did not answer.
She did not need to.
