Chapter 5: Then Let Her Run It

At nine on Monday morning I put a one-page letter on the desk of the head of HR.

She read it standing up.

"Sasha, are you sure? Your father hasn't mentioned this."

"He will in about a minute," I said. "Please log the time. Nine-oh-two."

The letter had four lines.

I resign, effective today.

I am the author of the Beacon House design, and I ask for written credit on every drawing.

Please return my personal files.

The firm's lawyer has a copy.

I had sent that copy to him at 6:30, from the hotel desk, with my lamp on.

Then I took a second printed copy up to the fourth floor.

Dad's door was open. He was on the phone, and he looked up and went still.

I set the letter on his blotter.

"What is this?" he said, and put the phone down without finishing the call.

"Read it."

He read it. His face did something I didn't see on him often.

"Sasha, this is absurd."

"It's four lines, Dad. You'll get through it."

I went past him, down the hall to the conference room.

Janie sat at the head of the table with Dylan beside her.

The whole Beacon team sat in the chairs along both sides.

I had a binder under my arm, three inches thick, with my own hand-lettered tabs.

Keep reading free with an account. Start My Brother Gave Her My Place, So I Stopped Coming Home from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.