Terrence sat between their treatment rooms, answering calls only when necessary. His legal director told him the police had requested relevant evidence. Helen Mercer, the district manager, was traveling to Charlotte from Richmond and would review the situation personally. The human resources team had already contacted an outside firm to ensure that the investigation did not become a company-controlled effort to protect reputations. Terrence agreed to the plan but insisted that no one approach witnesses with suggestions about what they should say.
When he returned to Willa's room, she was sitting upright with a cold pack resting over her hand. She looked smaller than he remembered from childhood and, at the same time, maddeningly familiar in the set of her jaw. Her determination had survived every change in her body. He pulled a chair close to the examination table and waited for her to speak.
"You look upset," she observed.
"I am upset."
"You're entitled to be. But don't make a business decision while you're angry at somebody who hurt me."
He stared at her. "Mom, are you really going to give me management advice right now?"
"Someone has to. You just got the job."
For the first time all morning, he laughed. The sound surprised them both. He reached for her good hand and held it gently while the smile faded. "I kept thinking about how you called me. You've been through surgeries and hospitalizations and never sounded the way you did today."
Willa looked down. "I wasn't sure I could keep Nadine safe. That's what frightened me most. She stepped in front of him because she thought she had to protect me, and I watched that man shove her aside like she was nothing."
"She did protect you. And the guard finally stepped forward."
"Yes," Willa said. "But we shouldn't have needed either of them to risk themselves just so I could buy a necklace."
Terrence nodded. He had walked into the store thinking primarily about his mother and had left thinking about every customer who did not have a family member with the authority to demand a review. If he used his position only to punish one manager, he might satisfy his anger without solving the problem. Willa knew that. It was why she kept bringing the conversation back to the company instead of asking for revenge.
"When I opened the first store," she said, "I made an employee handbook by typing pages on a machine that sometimes stuck. I couldn't afford a lawyer to draft anything fancy. The first page said we greet everyone who walks through the door. Everyone. It wasn't a complicated idea."
"I remember the copy you kept in the office," Terrence said.
"I wonder how far down the stack those words have been buried." She looked at him steadily. "Find out. Not just for me."