Chapter 3 - THE ROOM WHERE STAFF CHILDREN WAITED
Ana Reyes did not come to work the next morning.
Edward discovered why at 9:12.
He had arrived at the club expecting to review the security footage.
Instead, he found Mateo carrying a cardboard box through the employee entrance.
The boy stopped when he saw him.
“Mr. Hale.”
Edward looked at the box.
A pair of women’s work shoes sat on top.
A folded housekeeping uniform beneath them.
“What is that?”
Mateo looked down.
“My mom’s stuff.”
Edward’s stomach tightened.
“Where is Ana?”
“In the car.”
He walked around the building.
Ana sat behind the wheel of an old gray sedan.
Both hands gripped the steering wheel.
Her eyes were red.
Edward tapped the window.
She lowered it.
“Mr. Hale.”
“You were fired?”
Ana shook her head.
“Suspended.”
“For what?”
“Failure to supervise my child.”
Edward laughed once because the alternative was shouting.
“Your child was in the employee waiting room.”
“That’s what I said.”
“And?”
“They said Mateo left without authorization.”
“He heard Lucy screaming.”
“I know.”
Edward stared toward the clubhouse.
“Who suspended you?”
Ana did not answer.
She did not need to.
“Collins.”
She nodded.
“Until the board reviews what happened.”
Edward looked at Mateo.
The boy stood beside the trunk.
He had heard.
“Do you need the job?”
Ana almost smiled.
“Everybody who works housekeeping needs the job.”
“I meant—”
“I know what you meant.”
Edward stopped.
Ana continued.
“My rent doesn’t care that my son saved somebody.”
There was no bitterness in her voice.
That made it worse.
Edward knew what he normally would have done.
Called his office.
Had someone calculate her annual salary.
Written a check large enough to remove the problem.
Money was the tool he trusted most because money rarely argued.
But something about Ana’s expression told him that would be exactly the wrong thing.
“What do you want me to do?”
She looked surprised.
“Excuse me?”
“What do you want?”
“My job.”
“Besides that.”
“To not need somebody like you to save it every time somebody like Collins decides I’m disposable.”
Edward felt the words.
Mateo stared at the pavement.
Ana sighed.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
She looked at him.
“You asked.”
“I did.”
Edward turned toward Mateo.
“Can you show me where you were waiting yesterday?”
The boy glanced at his mother.
Ana nodded.
They entered through the staff door.
Edward had been a club member for twenty-two years.
He had never used that entrance.
The first thing he noticed was the smell.
Laundry detergent.
Bleach.
Coffee.
The second was the temperature.
The hallway was at least ten degrees warmer than the marble lobby.
Mateo led him downstairs.
They passed the laundry room.
Kitchen storage.
A break room with mismatched chairs.
Then a windowless space no bigger than Edward’s pantry.
Two folding chairs.
A small table.
An old television mounted in one corner.
A sign on the wall read:
EMPLOYEE DEPENDENTS MUST REMAIN IN DESIGNATED AREA.
NO ACCESS TO MEMBER FLOORS, POOL, TERRACE, DINING ROOM, OR RECREATION FACILITIES.
Edward read it twice.
“This is where you wait?”
Mateo nodded.
“How long?”
“Depends.”
“Yesterday?”
“From noon.”
Edward checked his watch.
Mateo had saved Lucy around five.
“Five hours?”
“My mom works doubles sometimes.”
“What do you do?”
“Homework.”
“And after homework?”
Mateo shrugged.
“Read.”
“Anything else?”
“Sometimes Mr. Luis lets me help fold towels.”
Edward looked around.
There were no windows.
No books.
No games.
Nothing intended for a child.
“How many other kids wait here?”
“Sometimes three.”
“Every day?”
“Not every day.”
Mateo looked worried.
“Are they going to get their moms in trouble?”
Edward’s chest tightened.
“No.”
“Because I shouldn’t have left.”
Edward turned fully toward him.
“You heard a child screaming.”
Mateo nodded.
“You did exactly what you were supposed to do.”
“Mr. Collins said rules are rules.”
Edward looked at the sign.
“Rules can be stupid.”
Mateo smiled slightly.
“My mom says rich people aren’t supposed to say stuff like that.”
Edward almost smiled too.
“Your mother has an alarming amount of confidence in rich people.”
Mateo laughed.
It was the first time Edward had heard it.
A normal kid’s laugh.
Then Mateo’s face became serious.
“I don’t want her to lose her job because of me.”
“She won’t.”
“You don’t know.”
Edward was beginning to notice how often children told him that.
Adults made promises.
Children checked whether they were true.
Before Edward could answer, footsteps approached.
Collins appeared.
His expression hardened immediately.
“Mr. Hale.”
Edward gestured toward the room.
“You keep children here?”
“It is not childcare.”
“I noticed.”
“It is a courtesy extended to employees who cannot arrange supervision.”
“A courtesy?”
Collins folded his arms.
“The alternative is that children cannot be brought to work.”
Edward stared.
“So you give them a closet and expect gratitude.”
“That is unfair.”
“Is it?”
“The club is not responsible for employees’ family arrangements.”
Mateo lowered his eyes.
Edward saw it.
Collins did too.
And kept talking.
“That does not give an employee’s child permission to wander into member areas.”
“He did not wander.”
“That’s beside the point.”
“No. That is precisely the point.”
Collins exhaled.
“Edward, you are emotionally involved because Lucy was hurt.”
“My granddaughter was drowning.”
“Yes. And Mateo helped her. No one disputes that.”
“You punished his mother anyway.”
“I applied policy.”
Edward looked at the sign again.
“Who wrote the policy?”
“The board approved it.”
“Who proposed it?”
Collins did not answer.
Edward smiled faintly.
“You.”
“After repeated complaints.”
“From whom?”
“Members.”
“What complaints?”
Collins looked toward Mateo.
“Children being visible.”
Edward stared.
Collins corrected himself.
“Employee children being in member spaces.”
“Visible.”
“That is not what I meant.”
“It sounded exactly like what you meant.”
Collins’s jaw tightened.
“Mr. Hale, you are a major donor here, and I respect that. But donors do not manage operations.”
“Then perhaps operations need better management.”
They stared at each other.
Then Edward asked:
“The footage.”
Collins’s expression changed.
“Our security director is reviewing it.”
“I asked to see it.”
“There are privacy issues.”
“Lucy is in it.”
“So are other minors.”
“I am not asking for a copy to post online.”
“Edward—”
“Today.”
Collins looked at Mateo.
Then back at Edward.
“I’ll speak to the board president.”
Edward left before anger made the conversation less useful.
Outside, Lucy was waiting beside his car.
His driver stood ten feet away, looking helpless.
Edward frowned.
“What are you doing here?”
“Grandma Rose brought me.”
Edward’s former wife still considered warning him optional.
Lucy ran toward Mateo.
“You came!”
Mateo smiled.
“Just to get Mom’s stuff.”
Lucy’s smile disappeared.
“What?”
Ana approached from the car.
Lucy looked at the box.
Then at Edward.
“Did they fire her?”
“Suspended.”
“What does that mean?”
Ana answered gently.
“It means I don’t work until they decide.”
Lucy’s face changed.
“Because Mateo saved me?”
“No,” Edward said.
Lucy turned to Collins, who had followed them outside.
“Then why?”
Collins looked uncomfortable.
“Miss Hale, this is an employment matter.”
“I don’t care.”
“Lucy.”
She ignored Edward.
“You told Mateo’s mom she’d get fired if he came near the pool.”
Collins glanced around.
Several employees had stopped moving.
Lucy continued.
“Then I almost drowned.”
Edward walked toward her.
“Lucy.”
She was crying now.
“If Mateo listened to you, I could be dead.”
Nobody spoke.
Collins’s face went pale.
Lucy wiped her cheeks furiously.
“And you still punished his mom.”
Edward put one hand on her shoulder.
“That’s enough.”
“No.”
Lucy turned to him.
“He doesn’t understand.”
Edward crouched.
“I think he does.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
Her voice cracked.
“Because everybody keeps saying Mateo broke a rule.”
Edward looked at Collins.
Lucy continued.
“But he broke it because I was screaming.”
She took Mateo’s hand.
“So if the rule says he was wrong, then the rule is wrong.”
Edward stared at his granddaughter.
Eight years old.
Barely dry from yesterday.
And somehow she had reduced an entire institution’s excuses to one sentence.
If the rule says he was wrong, then the rule is wrong.
Collins walked away.
Mateo looked at Lucy.
“You cry a lot.”
She glared at him.
“I almost died yesterday.”
“I know.”
“And my picture got wet.”
“I saved it.”
“That doesn’t mean I’m done being upset.”
Mateo smiled.
“Okay.”
Ana laughed quietly despite herself.
Edward watched them.
Then his phone rang.
It was Nora Bennett, the club’s security director.
“Mr. Hale?”
“Yes.”
“You asked about the footage.”
Edward looked toward the clubhouse.
“I did.”
There was a pause.
“I think you should see it before Mr. Collins does.”
Edward went still.
“Why?”
May you like
“Because the cameras show more than anybody told you.”
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