When she insisted on “finishing her shift,” he let her dust his desk. But as she reached across it, her elbow tipped over a glass of water. It shattered on the floor, soaking contracts and dripping toward the edge.
“I’m sorry!” she cried instantly, dropping to her knees and trying to grab shards with her bare hands. “Please don’t fire Mommy!”
“Stop!” James caught her small hands before she could cut herself. “It’s just water. And just a glass.”
“But she’ll lose her job!”
“She won’t,” he promised, lifting her onto the desk despite the water soaking into his suit. “You’re the bravest employee I’ve ever had.”
She wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed into his shoulder. Holding her, James felt a different kind of responsibility—one no boardroom had ever taught him.
Soon he learned the full story.
He drove Chloe to St. Mary’s Hospital himself. Rebecca Turner lay pale in a hospital bed, panic flooding her face when she saw her daughter and her CEO together.
“I’m so sorry, Mr. Caldwell,” she rasped. “What did she do?”
“Nothing wrong,” James assured her. “She saved my day.”