“Summer internship.”

Richard looked surprised.

“With whom?”

Jordan pointed behind him.

Eleanor.

She stepped out of a temporary office wearing a yellow safety helmet.

Richard laughed.

“This is becoming a habit.”

“You should see me with a hammer.”

“I’m afraid to.”

The project was different from anything Richard had developed before.

It included apartments, affordable housing, retail spaces, a community garden, and a childcare center.

Richard studied the plans.

“This could have made twice as much as luxury apartments.”

“Probably.”

“So why didn’t it?”

Eleanor looked at him.

“Because twice as much money is not always twice as much success.”

That day, Richard met architects, electricians, carpenters, and project managers.

He listened more than he spoke.

One worker named Luis had been on construction sites for thirty years.

Richard asked what he thought of the plans.

Luis looked suspicious.

“You actually want my opinion?”

“Yes.”

Luis pointed out three practical problems the engineers had missed.

Richard called the design team.

They changed the plans.

The next week, Richard began visiting his own company’s projects without an entourage.

He asked employees questions.

Sometimes the answers made him uncomfortable.

He changed policies.

Entry-level employees were invited into planning sessions.

Wages for support staff were reviewed.

Anonymous complaints were investigated by an independent team.

Several senior executives complained.

“You’re destroying the company culture,” one said.

Richard looked at him.

“That may be the point.”

Not everyone stayed.

Richard accepted that.

Months passed.

His company’s profits dipped.

Newspapers predicted his decline.

Gregory Mills was the loudest critic.

“You’ve lost your edge,” Gregory told him.

“No.”

“You used to understand business.”

“I understand it better now.”

Gregory laughed.

“You think carrying food boxes made you enlightened?”

Richard smiled.

“No.”

“Then what changed?”

Richard thought of Eleanor.

Table Twelve.

The old handbag.

Maya’s words.

Jordan’s drawings.

“I finally started listening to people who had nothing to gain by flattering me.”

Gregory shook his head.

“One day you’ll regret this.”

Perhaps Richard would have.

But that day never came.

Because several months later, a new proposal landed on his desk.

It was enormously profitable.

It also required clearing an entire low-income neighborhood.

The old Richard would have signed it before lunch.

The new Richard drove to the neighborhood.

He walked the streets.

He spoke to residents.

He learned names.

And when Gregory discovered what he was doing, he made a decision that would turn their disagreement into a war.

Gregory Mills believed Richard had become weak.

To Gregory, compassion was simply another word for hesitation.

And hesitation was expensive.

When Richard refused the redevelopment proposal, Gregory began negotiating privately with other investors.

He planned to move forward without him.

Richard discovered the plan during a board meeting.

“You went behind my back.”

Gregory leaned back.

“You stopped acting like a businessman.”

Richard looked around the room.

“This project would remove more than four hundred families.”

“It would compensate them.”

“Compensation doesn’t create a new community.”

Gregory smiled.

“You sound like Eleanor Grant.”

Richard almost laughed.

“Thank you.”

Gregory’s expression darkened.

The partnership collapsed.

Gregory took several investors and launched a rival development company.

Then he began attacking Richard publicly.

He claimed Richard’s transformation was a marketing strategy.

A desperate attempt to repair his reputation.

For once, Richard did not respond.

Instead, he continued working.

Eleanor, however, had a different problem.

One of her community housing projects had suddenly received an anonymous purchase offer.

The offer was far above market value.

Eleanor refused.

Then a second offer arrived.

And a third.

Richard investigated.

The buyer was hidden behind several companies.

But eventually, the connection became clear.

Gregory.

His plan was to buy the surrounding properties, pressure the residents to leave, and then make Eleanor’s building impossible to maintain.

Richard called Eleanor immediately.

“We need to fight this.”

Eleanor looked tired.

“Richard, I’ve fought people like Gregory my entire life.”

“I know.”

“And?”