“The evidence you showed me.”
She pulled another paper from the envelope.
“You brought me into an office three weeks after the funeral. There were four people at the table. I was pregnant, exhausted, and terrified about losing our apartment.”
Malcolm remained silent.
“You offered me a settlement,” Elena continued. “You said taking it would help me start over.”
“That offer included meaningful financial assistance.”
“You also told me that if I challenged the company, I could spend years in court.”
Julian looked at Malcolm.
“Did you?”
Malcolm sighed.
“I explained the realities of litigation.”
“To a grieving woman seven months pregnant?”
“Julian, emotional descriptions do not alter legal facts.”
Elena reached into the envelope again.
“This is what Ryan kept at home because he said copies of his complaints kept disappearing from project folders.”
Julian felt something cold settle into his stomach.
“Disappearing?”
Malcolm stepped forward.
“That is speculation.”
Elena looked directly at him.
“No. Speculation is what your company did when it decided my husband was easier to blame than a delayed project.”
Before Julian could answer, another figure appeared in the open doorway.
His mother.
Vivian Cross stood there in a cream-colored raincoat, looking as though she had just walked out of a board luncheon rather than climbed three flights of worn apartment stairs.
Julian stared at her.
“You’ve got to be kidding.”
Vivian looked past him at Malcolm.
“You should have stopped him before he came inside.”
Elena’s face changed again.
Julian noticed that too.
Not recognition this time.
Resignation.
As though she had always known that if she pushed hard enough against the company, eventually the Cross family itself would appear.
The Story His Family Preferred
Julian picked up Ryan’s email.
“Did Dad know about these complaints?”
Vivian removed her gloves carefully.
“Your father handled hundreds of projects and thousands of employees.”
“That wasn’t what I asked.”
“Julian, four years have passed.”
“That also wasn’t what I asked.”
Vivian’s eyes hardened.
“There was an accident. There was an investigation. There was a settlement. It was tragic, but businesses cannot reopen every painful decision indefinitely.”
Elena looked at her.
“Painful for whom?”
Vivian turned.
“Mrs. Brooks, I understand that you suffered a terrible loss.”
“No, you understand that your company wrote a check.”
“Elena,” Malcolm warned.
She ignored him.
“My son will grow up without ever hearing his father laugh. He’ll never know how Ryan sang terribly while making pancakes. He’ll never remember the way Ryan talked to him before he was even born.”
Her voice finally broke.
“And for four years, the official record has said his father was careless.”
Julian looked down at the papers again.
Vivian stepped closer.
“There is another issue you’re ignoring. This woman now works in your private residence.”
Elena’s head snapped up.
“What are you implying?”
Vivian answered Julian instead.
“Do you truly believe coincidence explains everything?”
Elena stared at her.
“I got that job through Rosewood Domestic Services.”
“You expect us to believe you had no idea whose home it was?”
“I knew his name was Julian Cross. I didn’t know he owned Crossfield.”
Vivian gave her a skeptical look.
Elena straightened.
“Mrs. Cross, I spend my mornings cleaning bathrooms and my evenings calculating whether I can buy diapers before payday. I’m not running a conspiracy.”
Julian almost smiled despite the tension.
His mother did not.
Malcolm touched Julian’s arm.
“Walk away. Let legal review the documents privately.”
Julian looked at him.
“And then what?”
“We determine whether anything requires action.”
“You already determined that four years ago.”
“That was different.”
“Why?”
Malcolm did not answer quickly enough.
Julian looked at Elena’s counter.
The nearly empty formula container was still there.
He opened one of his grocery bags.
“What brand does Caleb actually drink?”
Elena blinked.
“What?”
“I bought three because apparently I’m useless in a baby aisle.”
For the first time that evening, her expression nearly became a smile.
