A group of investors who had been close to Ryan demanded an extraordinary meeting, claiming the new leadership was moving too quickly on wages and employee benefits. Some were sincere in their concerns about cash flow. Others were responding to private assurances that Ryan might regain control if they made enough noise. Otis invited them to review audited figures under the normal confidentiality procedures and arranged a formal presentation with Grace.
The meeting was difficult. Investors wanted guarantees about margins and cash reserves that no responsible executive could give. One man suggested that a janitor who suddenly became CEO was likely to mistake charity for management. Otis waited until he finished before responding.
"I am an engineer who helped create the product line that built this company," she said. "I have also spent thirty years cleaning the offices where people made decisions about those products. Both experiences belong to me. Neither makes our cash-flow problem disappear, and neither gives you a reason to avoid discussing the actual figures."
She turned the screen toward Grace. The CFO explained the bridge facility, receivables, revised production forecasts, and planned control improvements. Some investors remained skeptical. Others began asking useful questions. By the end of the session, even the most hostile attendee had stopped pretending that Otis was unfamiliar with the business she had helped found.
Still, the atmosphere at Sterling remained uneasy. Employees had heard promises before, and some resented being encouraged to celebrate the new management before wages and working conditions changed. Otis learned about the resentment during a meeting with the janitorial staff. Charlotte told her that employees were being asked to smile for publicity photographs while their supply room remained short of basic equipment.
Otis looked at the shelves. The shortage was real, and it had been recorded in facilities requests for months. She asked Dennis why replacements hadn't been purchased. He showed her a message from a department administrator placing every nonessential facilities order on hold until the next budget review.
"Nonessential," Otis repeated, looking at the frayed handles and empty glove dispensers. "Who decided whether the people using these supplies could safely do their work without them?"
No one had asked that question. Otis arranged for the safety officer to assess the department and for approved supplies to be purchased within the revised cash budget. It wasn't a gesture for a television camera. She had worked those shifts, and she knew the difference between an office that looked clean and a workplace that gave cleaners the equipment to stay safe.
At home, she began sorting old correspondence, partly because Judith had asked her to identify any records that might help establish the founder history and partly because the public dispute had made her want to understand the choices she had made. There were letters from lenders who would correspond only with Thomas, notes from customers who praised Otis's engineering when they assumed a man had designed the equipment, and employee birthday cards she had saved for decades. Among them were photographs of Thomas and Ryan taken before wealth had hardened the boy's face.