My Father's Name
Chapter 15 - My Father's Name
The city council voted to rename the Rivergate worker safety center.
For years, it had carried the name of a Holloway donor.
Now a plaque would honor the workers who warned about unsafe conditions.
My father's name was listed first.
Daniel Marlowe.
I stood in front of the plaque with Rose.
She touched the letters.
"He would hate this."
I laughed.
"Why?"
"He hated ceremonies."
That sounded like him.
Earl Bennett attended in a wheelchair.
So did two of the workers injured in the collapse.
Martin Voss came too.
I did not know how I felt about that.
He had altered the report that helped ruin my father.
He had also finally told the truth.
When he approached me, he did not ask forgiveness.
"I'm sorry," he said.
I nodded.
That was all I could give him.
Not every apology needs a hug.
Not every wrong can be repaired by reconciliation.
Sometimes accountability is the most honest form of peace.
Grant stood at the back of the crowd.
He did not insert himself into the moment.
After the ceremony, I walked over.
"You came."
"Of course."
"Why are you standing over here?"
He smiled slightly.
"Because today isn't about me."
That answer made me love him a little.
Which was inconvenient.
We walked along the river.
Grant told me he had accepted a job with a mid-sized construction firm that specialized in rehabilitation projects.
"Your father would probably tell you to start at the top," I said.
"Mine would."
I regretted the words.
Grant surprised me by laughing.
"That's why I'm starting in project review."
We stopped near the bridge.
"Lena, I don't know whether we'll stay married."
Neither did I.
"But I know I want to become someone you could trust, even if you never come home."
I looked at the river.
"I don't want to go back to the mansion."
"I sold my interest in it."
I turned.
"What?"
"I don't want that house."
For nearly two years, I had believed the mansion represented everything I had gained by marrying Grant.
May you like
Now I understood.
The best future we might have had no marble floors at all.
