Back at Harbor Gate, Loretta spent Sunday morning with her own payroll director. She asked how quickly Belmont Row's front-line positions could be reviewed for improper disciplinary action and whether employees who had been fired during the acquisition transition could be contacted without compromising an existing investigation. The director explained the ordinary process: preserve personnel files, conduct interviews, examine policy, and avoid making promises that bypassed employment protections for everyone else. Loretta agreed, then added a request for an immediate review of Teresa's dismissal based on the appointment record and the correspondence already preserved.
"She may be owed wages, benefits, and an opportunity to be reinstated," the director said. "We should determine that first."
"Do it," Loretta replied. "And I want a separate review of the whole guest-services operation. If the only person willing to bring a thirsty visitor water can be fired for it, the problem is bigger than a single manager."
She then called Teresa. Mateo answered with the seriousness of a child who had been instructed to say his name clearly on the phone. He told Loretta that his mother was helping him make a cardboard model of a lighthouse and asked whether she had ever seen the ocean at night. Loretta told him she had, that she hoped he would one day see it too, and that lighthouses were built for people who might need help finding their way. Teresa came to the phone, laughing at her son's enthusiasm before embarrassment returned to her voice.
"I wanted to make sure you received the letter," Loretta said.
"I did. It's beautiful. I printed three copies."
"And your statement?"
"Everything in it is true. I checked my notes before I sent it."
"Good. Tomorrow, come to the main entrance at nine-thirty. There will be a place for you in the front row, and nobody will ask you to go around back."
Teresa looked toward Mateo working with glue at the table. "I'm nervous. Mr. Kincaid will be there."
"I know. You won't be asked to confront him. If anyone needs you to speak, you'll decide what you can say truthfully and what you're comfortable saying."
"I just want to work again. I don't want to hurt anybody."
Loretta could hear the exhaustion in her voice. "Wanting honest work is not the same as hurting someone," she said. "I spent eleven years cleaning office buildings. People who sit in those offices sometimes forget what it costs to keep the doors open. Tomorrow you may be able to remind them."
That Sunday evening, Patricia and Nia met with the acquiring company's independent board committee. The committee had to decide whether Monday's meeting should still include a chief executive announcement, even with serious unresolved concerns about its nominee. Several directors favored postponement rather than exposing a potential dispute before employees. Others worried that silently promoting Bradley, even temporarily, would place control of relevant records in the hands of the person whose department was under audit.