part 2

Part 2: “Linda mentioned it when I asked whether you had another one of your convenient family emergencies.”

“You asked about my daughter?”

“I asked why one of my directors was avoiding me like I was contagious.

Turns out most of your excuses were fiction.” Rachel folded her arms. “I’m not here to attack you, David. I’m here because I need the truth.”

“You don’t want the truth.”

“Yes,” she said. “I do.”

“No, you don’t.” His voice broke before he could stop it. “Because once you hear it, you won’t be able to unhear it.”

Rachel stared at him.

The fluorescent light above them buzzed. Somewhere in the distance, a car door slammed.

“Then say it,” she whispered.

David’s chest burned.

For four years, he had carried the sentence like a stone lodged behind his ribs. He had tried therapy twice and quit both times when the therapist asked what he thought Daniel would say to him now. He had kept Daniel’s old project files in an encrypted folder he never opened. He had attended the funeral and stood in the back because he could not

bear to look at Daniel’s parents, Daniel’s sister, Daniel’s niece, anyone who had loved him without knowing David had failed him.

“I blame myself,” David said.

Rachel did not move.

“I knew he was exhausted. I knew he was working sixteen-hour days. I knew he was drinking coffee like water and sleeping under his desk and telling everyone he was fine.” David’s voice shook. “And I let him keep going.”

Rachel’s face went pale.

“You want to know why I’ve avoided you?” he said. “Because every time I see you, I remember the phone call. I remember the officer saying Daniel had fallen asleep at the wheel fifteen minutes from home. I remember thinking I should have stopped him. I should have pulled him off the project. I should have burned the whole thing down before it got that far.”

“The Apex Project,” Rachel said quietly.

David let out a

bitter laugh. “So you know.”

“I know the deadline changed. I know the client expanded the scope halfway through. I know senior leadership refused to move the launch date. I know you sent seventeen emails warning that your team was burning out. I know you requested additional headcount six times.”

David stared at her. “How do you know that?”

“Because I have spent three months investigating my brother’s death.”

There it was.

Not revenge. Not corporate curiosity.

A sister’s grief in a CEO’s office.

Rachel’s eyes shone now, but she did not cry.

“I came here thinking I would find a villain,” she said. “Some careless manager who pushed my brother until he broke.”

“That is what you found.”

“No.” Her voice sharpened. “I found a manager who fought people three levels above him. I found documentation. Warnings. Escalations. I found someone who cared enough to risk his job and

has spent four years punishing himself because he thinks caring wasn’t enough.”

“It wasn’t enough,” David said.

“No,” Rachel said. “It wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean it was nothing.”

The words landed harder than accusation.

David looked away before she could see the tears threatening him.

Rachel stepped closer, leaving only a few feet between them. “Did Daniel ever ask you to take him off the project?”

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