Chapter 12 - An Unlikely Offer|
Hannah stepped back, allowing him to enter her cramped living room.
The apartment was spotless, but its poverty was impossible to hide. The wallpaper was peeling near the ceiling, the furniture was mismatched thrift store finds, and the air was so cold that Ethan could see his own breath misting slightly in the drafty room.
Ethan set the brown box on the small laminate kitchen table. "I brought dinner from the bistro down the street. And some fresh milk."
Hannah looked at the box, then looked at Ethan, her pride flaring up again. "Mr. Whitmore, if your mother saw you here—"
"My mother does not run my life, Hannah," Ethan said sharply, though his tone softened as he looked down at Ellie, who was watching him intently from Hannah’s arms. "And what she said to you today in the breakroom was unacceptable."
He opened the thick paper folder he carried and laid a document flat on the table.
"What is that?" Hannah asked.
"An internal transfer offer," Ethan explained, pointing to the title line at the top of the page. "The executive suite needs a day-shift administrative coordinator. The position includes healthcare benefits, a fair living salary, and paid childcare assistance at the corporate daycare facility on the first floor."
Hannah stared at the paper as if it were written in a foreign language. "Administrative coordinator? I don't have a business degree, Mr. Whitmore. I clean floors."
"You have exceptional discipline, absolute honesty, and an undeniable work ethic," Ethan countered smoothly, stepping closer to her. "I have dozens of ivy-league applicants who lie to protect their egos. I need someone in my office I can actually trust."
Hannah looked down at the document, her mind racing. A living salary meant she could fix her heating. It meant proper daycare for Ellie instead of relying on aging sitters. It meant she wouldn't have to work eighty hours a week across two jobs just to buy groceries.
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"Is this charity?" Hannah asked, her voice cracking as she searched his eyes. "Because if you're doing this out of pity for my daughter—"
"It is not charity," Ethan interrupted firmly, his gray eyes holding hers with absolute intensity. "It is an investment in someone who earned my respect in the dark."
