“Yes,” she replied. “I truly believe it is.”
“Show me,” he said.
“That’s awful,” he murmured. “How was this missed?”
“Because it’s hidden,” she said. “And no one stays long enough to notice.”
Specialists were called immediately. The diagnosis was serious: toxic mold caused by an old plumbing leak had been spreading behind the walls for years.
That night, Zachary slept in a guest room with open windows.
For the first time in months, he woke without nausea.
When Brianna arrived the next day, he greeted her standing taller, eyes clearer.
“I feel like I’ve been suffocating for years,” he said. “And now I can breathe.”
Repairs began at once. Walls were stripped, materials replaced, air circulated freely. Zachary’s recovery was steady and unmistakable.
One afternoon, he stopped Brianna near the stairs.
“I only spoke because I cared,” she replied softly.
“That’s exactly why it mattered,” he said.
Zachary went further than gratitude. He enrolled Brianna in a property management program and expanded her role, inviting her into decisions and planning.
Their conversations deepened—about responsibility, loneliness, and the quiet pressure of surviving when the world expects you to struggle unnoticed.
One evening, he paused outside the sunroom.
“Brianna,” he said, hesitant, “would you have dinner with me sometime? Not as my employee—but as someone I trust.”
Her heart raced. Life was complicated.
