She looked out the window.
“Eventually I found work cleaning rooms at a hospital. Then an old house my grandmother left me. It was falling apart… but it was the one thing you couldn’t take.”
Daniel lowered his head.
The flowers in his hand suddenly felt like stones.
Finally he spoke.
“The company is collapsing,” he confessed. “Whitmore Industries is close to bankruptcy.”
Emily tilted her head slightly.
“And that concerns me because…?”
“You were the real strategist behind our best projects,” Daniel admitted. “Without you… I just made money.”
Emily slowly took the flowers from his hands.
For a moment, Daniel felt hope.
Then she dropped them on the floor.
“I learned something here,” she said calmly.
“Flowers don’t fill empty stomachs.”
“Pretty words don’t pay bills.”
“And promises don’t heal wounds.”
Daniel swallowed.
“So you won’t help me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
She opened a small wooden box and pulled out an old folder filled with documents.
“These were our unfinished projects,” she said. “Ideas you laughed at.”
