"You would use the entire reward as seed money?"
"I'd like to, if we can set it up properly. If you still want to give it."
Victoria stood and walked to the glass. For a moment Caleb was afraid he had insulted her, or that she thought he was performing generosity so she would offer him even more. He could have explained that he was frightened of money on that scale, frightened of how quickly it could change his relationship with people, and also frightened that refusing it might be a betrayal of Emma. All those feelings were true. He held still and let her think.
When Victoria turned back, her expression was clear. "I have a counterproposal. The three and a half million will go into a separate, independently governed education fund. We'll name it for Diane Hayes and Marcus Richardson. Hayes International will commit additional money over several years, subject to financial oversight, and we will find qualified partners who can turn training into recognized credentials."
Caleb felt his throat tighten. "You'd do that?"
"I'm not finished. You'll be the founding director. Not a mascot, not a volunteer, and not somebody I trot out in front of investors to make us look generous. You'll receive a salary that reflects the job. You'll also get an independent board, because I know enough about running companies to understand the danger of letting one person control every decision."
"I don't have a degree."
"Then you'll run the parts of the program you're qualified to run and hire people with the qualifications the other parts require. That's how competent organizations work. Yesterday you insisted on the same rule when my aircraft was at stake. I see no reason to abandon it now."
He laughed shakily. "And the salary?"
"It will be enough for you to take care of your daughter and stop repairing that jacket with a safety pin."
Caleb looked up sharply. "How did you know about the jacket?"
"You mentioned it when we spoke about your daughter. You may not have realized how often you bring her into every decision."
He swallowed. "I don't want her to grow up thinking I chose strangers over her."
Victoria walked around the desk and stood beside him. "Then don't. The world has enough men who claim they're making sacrifices for their children while disappearing from their lives. You can build doors for strangers and be home for supper. We will write that into how this organization operates."
For the first time since Grace died, Caleb felt the outline of a future he did not have to apologize for wanting. It frightened him almost as much as the reward. He thought of Marcus's old notebook, the sentence underlined twice, and a seven-year-old girl who had decided a professional was a person with a spinning chair.
He stood and offered Victoria his hand. "Then let's build it."
She took it. "Let's build it properly."
In the silence that followed, Caleb asked a question nobody in Victoria's adult life had asked after she told them about her mother. "What did Diane like to do when she wasn't fixing airplanes?"