Chapter 14 - The Conference Room Where They Showed the Numbers
The conference room was too cold. That was the first thing I noticed. The vent hummed right over my chair and I kept my hands folded tight in my lap to stop them shaking. Marta sat next to me in her church sweater, her purse on her knees. Daniel sat on my other side, in a clean white shirt this time, his watch tucked under his cuff. Across the long table, Dana from BrightNest smiled like we were there to renew something.
I was still in my gray uniform. I'd come straight from a morning shift. I hadn't wanted to change.
Our attorney, Mr. Ellis, set a thin stack of papers down and didn't waste time. He'd told us on the drive over that the bank subpoena had come back. He laid out three pages side by side.
"This is what Mr. Reyes was billed each month per placement," he said, tapping the first. "Twenty-four hundred dollars."
He tapped the second. "This is what was deposited to Ms. Lena's account. Fourteen hundred dollars."
Then the third. "And this is where the other thousand went. BrightNest Staffing to BrightNest Consulting. Same owner. A shell fee for quote placement services."
I stared at the numbers until they blurred. I'd said fourteen hundred out loud that night on the kitchen floor while holding my rice. Hearing it again in that cold room made my throat close.
Dana didn't blink. "That's our standard service margin. Recruiting, insurance, background checks —"
"It's labeled a consulting fee paid to yourself," Ellis cut in, calm. "On the same day the deposit splits. For fourteen months."
Daniel leaned forward. "You told me my payment covered fair wages. You sent me an invoice that said payroll included."
Dana glanced at him, then at us. She folded her hands. "Look. Agencies have overhead. No one forced anyone to sign. If there was confusion —"
Marta's breath caught next to me. I reached over without looking and found her hand.
Ellis slid another paper forward. "The sheriff's office has the logs and the invoices. We filed the wage claims. You're on notice. This meeting is to see if you want to resolve it before the hearing."
That was when Dana changed her tone. Softer. Almost kind. She looked straight at me.
"Lena, you've been one of our best. We value you. What if we fix this quietly? Back pay to you, a correction going forward, a good reference. No hearing, no paperwork that follows you. We can cut a check this week."
My heart beat so hard I could feel it in my neck. Back pay. Fourteen months of a thousand dollars. I did the math before I could stop myself. Enough to breathe. Enough to send home.
I looked at Marta. Her hand was cold in mine. Her deposit had been even less than mine for the first six months. She'd told me in Daniel's laundry room with the door closed.
I swallowed. "Does that include Marta?"
Dana's smile thinned. "We can discuss each file separately —"
"No," I said. My voice was quiet but it didn't shake. "Not just me. All of us."
Dana looked at Daniel. "Mr. Reyes, you're a reasonable man. A hearing helps no one. Bad press for you too, having your household in it. Take care of your girl here, we take care of you on next quarter's rate —"
Daniel shook his head once. "Don't."
He put his hand flat on the table near the bank papers. "I'm not buying a private deal that leaves the others out. I was billed for their pay. I need to know every dollar went where it was supposed to."
The room went still except for the vent. Dana studied us for a long moment, then leaned back and nodded to the young man she'd brought, who hadn't spoken once. He capped his pen.
"Then we have no agreement," Dana said. "We'll see you at the hearing."
Ellis wrote the date and time on a legal pad and turned it so we could see. He printed Dana's offer in neat block letters underneath — back pay for Lena alone in exchange for withdrawal and confidentiality — and wrote DECLINED beneath it, with today's date. He asked Dana to initial that it had been offered. She did, tight-lipped.
On the elevator down, Marta squeezed my hand so hard it hurt. None of us spoke until we were out on the sidewalk in the sun. I stood there breathing in warm air after that cold room, my uniform skirt sticking to my legs, thinking of that thousand dollars moving every month to an account I'd never seen while I ate plain rice on a marble floor.
May you like
Daniel looked at me. "You okay?"
I nodded, because I wasn't ready to say what I felt. I hadn't taken the money. The hearing was still ahead. But for the first time, the numbers were on paper where no one could talk them away.
