Chapter 6 - The Bread of Humility
That night, Rose pulled the tea tin from beneath the floorboard. She laid the stacks of bills across her kitchen table.
Julian had given her this money to ensure she would survive whatever storm was about to hit him. He had anticipated his own ruin—the foreclosure of his home, the loss of his career, perhaps even prison if he had manipulated accounts to shield his family. He had stripped himself of his final reserve so that his elderly mother would not starve in an unheated house.
"Foolish boy," Rose whispered softly, her hand resting over the bills. "A mother does not eat bread bought with her son’s life."
She placed the money into a sturdy canvas bag. Then, she retrieved her own life savings—the modest five thousand dollars she had kept in a postal savings certificate since her husband passed away. She bundled it all together.
At dawn, she took the early bus into the city center. She walked through the revolving doors of Julian’s office building on 4th Street, holding her canvas bag firmly in both hands.
May you like
The receptionist looked surprised to see the elderly woman in the frayed coat. "May I help you, ma'am?"
"I am Julian Miller's mother," Rose said calmly. "Tell him I am here to return something he left behind."
