Chapter 12 - THE HARBOR
The next afternoon, Victor took Lena to the harbor.
The Whitmore shipping terminal had been returned to her family.
Four years earlier, Lena had watched the property disappear from her father's hands.
Now she stood in the same place again.
The massive cranes moved against the gray sky.
Ships entered the harbor.
Workers walked between containers.
Victor stopped beside the main administration building.
“This belongs to you.”
Lena stared at him.
“I don't know how to run a shipping company.”
“You don't have to.”
“Then why give it to me?”
“Because it was taken from your family.”
She shook her head.
“My father spent his entire life building this.”
“I know.”
“He knew every worker here.”
Victor looked toward the loading docks.
“Then don't sell it.”
Lena looked at him.
“You think I should run it?”
“I think you should decide.”
She walked into the building.
Old photographs lined the hallway.
Richard stood in several of them.
Younger.
Smiling.
Standing beside workers.
Lena touched one photograph.
A man behind her spoke softly.
“Your father knew every one of us by name.”
She turned.
An older dockworker stood there.
“You knew him?”
The man smiled.
“Everybody did.”
His eyes became wet.
“He was a good man.”
Lena swallowed hard.
For years, she had thought her father's legacy had disappeared.
It hadn't.
May you like
It had simply been buried beneath a lie.
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