Chapter 6 - The $2,800 Question
The next morning, Maya woke in Daniel’s secured apartment to find Lily sitting beside the window eating pancakes.
“Mommy!”
Maya rushed toward her.
Lily hugged her.
“You came!”
“I promised.”
Daniel stood near the kitchen.
Lily pointed at him.
“Mr. Grumpy bought pancakes.”
Daniel corrected her.
“The chef made pancakes.”
“Same thing.”
Maya laughed.
Then she noticed a refrigerated medical case on the counter.
Her smile disappeared.
“Daniel.”
He held up a hand.
“I didn’t pay your bill.”
She opened the case.
Lily’s medication was inside.
“How?”
“The stolen inventory has been released to the hospitals and clinics it was originally assigned to.”
Maya looked at him.
“So this is—”
“Lily’s medication. Already purchased through the original distribution contract.”
Her eyes filled.
“You didn’t pay $2,800?”
“No.”
Lily looked between them.
“Why does Mommy keep saying twenty-eight hundred?”
Daniel crouched beside her.
“Because adults make simple things unnecessarily complicated.”
Lily nodded seriously.
“That’s true.”
Maya laughed through her tears.
Daniel stood.
“There’s something else.”
“Of course there is.”
“The investigation identified at least forty-three families affected by the diversion scheme.”
Maya’s expression changed.
“Forty-three?”
“Possibly more.”
“What happens to them?”
“I’m creating an emergency medication fund.”
Maya stared at him.
Daniel continued.
“Independent oversight. No connection to my personal accounts. Families receive assistance based on medical need.”
“Why?”
Daniel looked toward Lily.
“Because yesterday I asked myself how someone could possibly not have $2,800.”
Maya was silent.
“And then?”
“I realized it was a stupid question.”
She smiled slightly.
“What’s the better question?”
Daniel answered quietly.
“Why should a child’s ability to breathe depend on whether her mother has $2,800?”
Maya looked at him for a long moment.
“That doesn’t sound like the man I started working for eight months ago.”
“It isn’t.”
Lily tugged Daniel’s sleeve.
“Mr. Grumpy?”
“Yes?”
“Do you have kids?”
“No.”
“A wife?”
Maya closed her eyes.
“Lily.”
“What?”
Daniel looked amused.
“No wife.”
“Girlfriend?”
“Lily.”
“What? Grandma asks people that.”
Daniel glanced toward Maya.
“No girlfriend.”
Lily considered this information.
Then she whispered loudly to her mother:
“He’s lonely.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“I can hear you.”
“I know.”
Maya covered her mouth to hide her laugh.
For the first time in years, Daniel Foster stood in one of his own apartments and realized he did not want the room to become quiet again.
---
Three weeks later, Maya returned to work.
Not as Daniel’s housekeeper.
He had offered her a position with the new medical assistance foundation because she understood exactly what desperate families faced.
She refused initially.
“I don’t have a college degree.”
Daniel leaned back in his chair.
“Neither does desperation.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It means I need someone who understands the families, not someone who studied them.”
Maya looked at the contract.
“The salary is ridiculous.”
“It’s market rate.”
“It’s twice what I made before.”
“Then your previous salary was ridiculous.”
“You set my previous salary.”
Daniel paused.
“That’s inconvenient.”
Maya smiled.
Then she signed.
But one question remained.
Luis had revealed that Hale’s operation reached beyond one clinic.
Investigators were still following the money.
And Daniel had discovered something equally disturbing.
Frank had used Daniel’s reputation as protection.
Everyone assumed Daniel knew.
Some believed he had authorized the scheme.
At a board meeting, one executive finally said it aloud.
“People are talking.”
Daniel looked around the table.
“Let them.”
“They think Foster Logistics was involved.”
“It was.”
The room became silent.
Ryan watched him carefully.
Daniel continued.
“My company was used. That makes the failure mine.”
An executive frowned.
“You’re accepting responsibility?”
“Yes.”
“That could cost us millions.”
Daniel leaned back.
“I have millions.”
Nobody spoke.
Daniel added:
“What I apparently lacked was attention.”
Ryan almost smiled.
The executive asked, “And Frank?”
“Gone.”
“His shares?”
“Frozen.”
“His position?”
“Terminated.”
“And the medical contracts?”
Daniel looked toward Maya, who sat at the opposite end of the table for the first time.
“Maya?”
Several executives looked surprised.
She straightened.
“We rebuild them.”
“How?”
“Full shipment transparency. Independent tracking. Direct verification from receiving pharmacies.”
One executive interrupted.
“That will increase costs.”
Maya looked at him.
“So does stealing medicine.”
Daniel hid a smile.
The executive looked toward him.
“You’re letting her make operational recommendations?”
Daniel replied:
“I’m listening to the person who found the problem while the rest of us missed it.”
May you like
Nobody challenged her again.
---
