Chapter 14 - My Daughter Refused to Become the Museum's Mascot
Mercer offered Leah a scholarship fund.
I declined before she could answer.
Then realized I had just repeated the exact mistake everyone in this story kept making.
Deciding first.
I apologized.
“Do you want it?”
She thought.
“What do they want me to do?”
Smart girl.
Julian answered himself.
“Nothing.”
“Like interviews?”
“No.”
“Photos?”
“No.”
“Events?”
“No.”
“Why give it to me?”
“Because you exposed something we should have caught.”
Leah frowned.
“That sounds like you're paying me for embarrassing you.”
Julian laughed.
I covered my face.
Eventually the scholarship became broader.
Not Leah Carter Scholarship.
No heroic child branding.
A language-access program for public-school students.
Arabic.
Mandarin.
Spanish.
Portuguese.
Other languages added later.
Leah applied like everyone else when she was old enough.
No guaranteed place.
That was her condition.
Mine too.
As for me—
Julian offered me a position in provenance research.
I declined initially.
“I mop floors.”
“You also spent seven years hearing executives talk.”
“Not a qualification.”
“Probably more useful than some of ours.”
I eventually enrolled in evening courses paid through the employee education program.
Two years later, I joined archival operations.
Not because a billionaire discovered hidden genius in his janitor.
I was not secretly an expert.
I studied.
Worked.
May you like
Qualified.
That distinction mattered to me.
