She did not immediately think about horsepower or speed. She thought about William at eight, sitting at the kitchen table and drawing an impossible car in a place where electricity bills sometimes arrived with red warnings. She thought about his first used bicycle, bought from a neighbor and repaired by Samuel with a box of mismatched tools. She thought about what that little boy might have felt if someone had placed him in this seat and told him, without qualification, that beautiful things were allowed to be part of his life.
Anna stood beside the open door. "What do you think?"
Christina touched the steering wheel lightly. "I think he'd love it. And I think his grandfather would have insisted on reading every page of the warranty."
Evan smiled. "We can do that. There's no rush."
She spent the afternoon reading the documents and speaking with her adviser by phone. The adviser confirmed the proposed payment remained within the plan they had discussed, and Christina asked for written confirmation of the total purchase price including taxes, title work, and the recommended services. She rejected a collection of optional extras she did not consider valuable and accepted an extended service arrangement only after comparing the terms to what her independent inspector advised.
When the final number was clear, she sat quietly for several minutes. It was a large amount of money, larger than any single purchase she had made in her life, and she allowed herself to feel the gravity of it. Then she signed the purchase order and arranged a bank wire under the gallery's documented payment procedures.
There was no applause. Evan shook her hand and thanked her, exactly as he would have thanked any buyer completing a transaction. Christina asked him to keep the purchase confidential until William's birthday. Martin agreed to keep the information within the small delivery team, and William was told only that his grandmother had received the vehicle records she requested.
Christina insisted that the transaction be recorded at the ordinary advertised price with no special shareholder discount. She did not want to buy a family member's birthday gift on terms unavailable to somebody else standing in the same room. William could discover what she'd done when the time came, and if he argued that it was too much, she already had a speech prepared about how children should learn not to question their elders on matters of birthday presents.
Before leaving, Christina asked Lena one final question. "How is everybody doing? Really doing?"
Lena looked toward the reception desk and considered her answer. "We're still figuring things out. But last week a man came in wearing paint on his trousers, and Evan spent half an hour answering his questions. He didn't buy anything. Nobody complained about the time."
"That sounds like an ordinary Tuesday," Christina said.
"It does now," Lena replied.
Christina smiled. "Then perhaps you're getting somewhere."