Matilda watched the model carefully. Then she asked whether her mother had helped build the batteries, and Dante told her Rosalind had helped them understand what the batteries needed to do for frightened people. The girl looked at the rows of engineers working behind a glass partition and seemed relieved that the company contained people who smiled at one another. She asked whether she could draw a rabbit beside the little hospital, and the technician said that was an excellent idea.
Calista observed the visit from the far side of the laboratory. She did not approach Matilda because she understood that being forgiven was not something a person could demand merely by behaving better for a few weeks. Instead she stood with Leila, asking about the next test and listening closely enough to understand the answers. The distance between her and Dante was changing, but slowly, and neither of them attempted to call respect something more personal before it had earned a stable foundation.
At the San Francisco headquarters, work on the new reporting structure progressed without ceremony. Material ethics concerns could now reach the independent committee without being rewritten by the department named in the complaint. Visitor services received training that emphasized practical assistance rather than judging a person's clothes or status. The company also reviewed how long candidates had been left waiting for interviews, a detail that would once have seemed too minor to deserve executive attention.
Constance helped redesign the reception process because she knew where ordinary visitors felt invisible. Water was made available without requiring a person to ask someone important, and families with children were directed to a comfortable waiting area without being treated as nuisances. Interviewers had to notify reception when schedules slipped, and delays were recorded rather than blamed on the applicant. Dante asked for the results to be audited, aware that small courtesies were easy to perform for a week and harder to sustain when public attention faded.
The old bench where he and Matilda had waited remained in place. Some executives suggested removing it because the video of Zane's remarks had made it infamous. Dante refused, saying that hiding an uncomfortable memory would teach the wrong lesson. Instead, the company added a nearby table with water and reading materials, a practical reminder that visitors should not have to prove their worth before being welcomed.
By the end of the first month, several employees who had drafted resignation letters agreed to postpone their departures. They did not stay because the founder was charismatic or because the company's public image had improved. They stayed because testing equipment arrived, their reports received answers, and decisions increasingly matched the promises made in meetings. In the laboratory corridors, people began talking about future designs instead of calculating how long they could endure the present.
Dante was careful not to confuse these signs with full recovery. The market remained uncertain, Blackridge's attorneys were still active, and the investigation had not resolved every disputed transaction. He kept regular appointments with independent directors and continued taking Matilda to school when his schedule allowed. He had learned that the company could be neither a substitute for his family nor a responsibility he could abandon whenever being present became uncomfortable.