Chapter 7 - The Master of Meridian
The silence that settled over Hayes & Son Tailoring after the security detail left was profound.
The cold evening wind blew through the shattered front window, rustling the hanging patterns and spools of thread.
Daniel walked over to the corner of the room, picked up a heavy wool blanket from a storage crate, and carefully draped it over the open window frame to block the draft.
"I owe you a new window, Eleanor," Daniel said, turning around with a small, self-deprecating smile.
Eleanor slowly set her iron tailoring shears down on the counter. She pulled out her small stool and sat down, leaning her elbows on the wooden surface, looking at him with a long, steady gaze.
"So," Eleanor said softly. "Danny Cole is Daniel Cross. The billionaire."
"He was," Daniel said, walking over to sit on the bench across from her. "For eighteen months, I was just Danny. And to be honest with you, Eleanor... those eighteen months were the only honest months I’ve lived since my mother died."
"Why did you do it, son?" Eleanor asked quietly. "A man with your kind of money doesn't sit in the freezing rain selling four-dollar chestnuts just because he broke up with a nasty girl."
Daniel looked down at his clean, unblemished hands—hands that had signed billion-dollar merger agreements and had also turned hot iron tongs over burning charcoal.
"When my mother died," Daniel said, his voice quiet and reflective, "she told me that money was like water. If you drink just enough, it keeps you alive. If you try to drink the whole ocean, you drown. After she passed, everyone around me—my board members, my friends, my fiancée—they were all drinking the ocean. I couldn't tell who was real anymore. I was drowning, Eleanor."
He looked up at her, his grey eyes clear and bright under the workshop lamps.
"Sitting out there on Riverside Avenue, feeling the cold, watching people walk by... it reminded me of what it feels like to be human again. And then you walked out with that twenty-dollar bill."
Eleanor smiled, her warm brown eyes crinkling at the corners. "I thought you were just a stubborn boy who didn't know how to keep his chestnuts from burning."
"You gave me coffee every morning for a year and a half, Eleanor," Daniel said. "You protected my cart from the street kids. You never asked for my last name, and you wore my mother's brooch without knowing it was worth four million dollars."
He reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a thick, leather-bound document stamped with the seal of the state capital, and set it gently on the counter in front of her.
"What's this?" Eleanor asked, frowning slightly as she reached for her reading glasses.
"That is the deed of ownership for the entire Riverside Commercial Block," Daniel said smoothly. "The dry cleaner, the bakery, this shop, and the three apartment buildings above us."
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Eleanor froze, her hand hovering over the paper. "Danny..."
"It’s registered in your name, Eleanor," Daniel continued, his voice filled with deep, unquestionable warmth. "No landlord can ever raise your rent again. No city developer can ever tear down this building. You own the land, the brick, and the thread. Forever."
