“That keeps being your answer.”
“Because it keeps being true.”
She slid another paper toward me.
Salary.
Equity.
Board authority.
A hiring budget.
I stared at the final number.
“This can’t be right.”
“It is.”
“This is more money than I ever imagined making.”
“I’m aware.”
I closed the folder.
“Why me?”
Eleanor became serious.
“Because when my life had no value to you beyond being human, you treated it as valuable anyway.”
Her eyes glistened.
“I have spent forty years hiring people who could read balance sheets.”
She paused.
“I want one person at the table who remembers there are human beings behind them.”
I couldn’t speak.
Then she added:
“And there’s another condition.”
“What?”
“You do not invest a single dollar in a company until you have met at least one ordinary employee.”
I smiled.
“That I can do.”
“So?”
I stared at the contract.
