Chapter 12 - Knocking on Her Door
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Lianna slowly nodded, pointing toward the small vinyl kitchen chair.
Corbin pulled the chair out and sat down. He pulled a thick leather wallet from his coat pocket, pulled out all the cash inside—nearly fifteen hundred dollars—and set it quietly on the table beside the baby’s empty bottle.
“First,” Corbin said, “take this. Not as a loan, and not as a bribe. Consider it back pay that this company owed your family four years ago. Tomorrow morning, a nursery service will deliver a year’s supply of formula and diapers to this door.”
Lianna stared at the stack of bills, tears brimming in her eyes once more. “Mr. Stanford... I can't—”
“Yes, you can,” Corbin said firmly. “Now please, tell me what happened to Ethan.”
Lianna set baby Austin down gently in his wooden crib and sat across from Corbin. She wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her gray sweater.
“Ethan was twenty-four when he got hired at Stanford Development,” she began, her voice soft and full of memory. “He was so proud. He was an honest man, Mr. Stanford. He believed that building things meant keeping people safe.”
She looked down at her hands.
“Four years ago, when they started pouring the deep foundations for the Harbor Tower, Ethan realized the concrete mix was being diluted with cheap industrial fillers to save money,” Lianna explained. “He confronted your uncle, Marcus Stanford. Marcus told him to mind his business and sign the safety logs.”
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“And Ethan refused,” Corbin filled in, his blood running cold.
“He refused,” Lianna confirmed. “He told Marcus he was going to the state building inspector on Friday. On Thursday afternoon, Ethan was working alone on the fourth-floor framing. They told me he tripped over a cable and fell. But Ethan was meticulous. He never worked without a safety harness attached. Never.”
