His appointment had received attention in the business press, though not enough to make his face familiar to every store manager. He had worked in retail operations for years, first outside the family company because Willa insisted he learn to answer to people who did not know his mother, and later within Beaumont's regional divisions. When executives argued over whether a store should close, he asked them to speak to the people working there. When a report blamed low sales on the neighborhood, he asked whether anyone had tried changing the way customers were welcomed.
He was not as instinctive as Willa, and he knew it. She could recognize a person losing confidence in a single glance; he often needed to ask more questions. But he had inherited enough of her patience to understand that a company was made of people long before it was made of assets. He had accepted the chief executive role partly because he hoped to return that conviction to a business increasingly obsessed with numbers.
His phone lay beside a stack of regional reports when Willa called. Terrence knew she would not interrupt his working day over a minor inconvenience. She had endured hospital appointments, medication changes, and nights of severe pain without asking him to abandon a meeting. Hearing her say that she needed him, with Nadine present and no explanation offered, made him stand before the call ended.
He called Nadine immediately. She answered on the second ring, breathing unevenly. "Mr. Saunders, we need you here. The manager's been hurting her."
For a moment Terrence did not understand the sentence. "What do you mean, hurting her?"
"He hit her hand. He kicked her wheelchair. He shoved me, too. We called the police, but the manager is saying we tried to steal things. There are people recording. Your mother isn't saying how much pain she's in."
Terrence was already grabbing his jacket. He asked whether Willa needed an ambulance, whether she was conscious and breathing normally, and whether Nadine felt safe staying in the store. Nadine said Willa was alert and the security guard had stepped between them and the manager. Terrence told her to stay where witnesses could see her, avoid any further confrontation, and ask the officers for medical help if Willa's condition changed.
"I'm coming now," he said. "And Nadine, listen to me. You did the right thing calling. This isn't yours to handle alone."
He ended the call and told his assistant to cancel the rest of his morning. The assistant began asking about the board conference call, the investor briefing, and the regional director waiting on another line. Terrence answered that his mother had been hurt at the Tryon Street flagship and he was leaving. The assistant's expression changed immediately. He offered to arrange a driver, but Terrence had already taken his keys.