Chapter 12 - The Desperation at the Employee Entrance
The sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, bruised shadows across the immaculate loading docks at the back of Apex Market.
I was reviewing the end-of-day sales reports on my tablet, completely satisfied with the record-breaking numbers our first day of business had generated.
My assistant knocked softly on my office door before stepping inside to inform me that a man was causing a commotion at the back service entrance.
She mentioned that security had tried to escort him off the property, but he was screaming my name and refusing to leave without speaking to me.
I sighed softly, knowing instantly who it was, and told my assistant that I would handle the situation personally.
I walked down the brightly lit industrial hallway, my leather shoes clicking rhythmically against the concrete floor until I reached the heavy steel exit doors.
When the guard pushed the door open, the cool evening air rushed in, carrying the pitiful, trembling figure of my older brother, Pierce.
He looked ten years older than his actual age, his hair uncombed, his cheeks hollow, and his designer clothes replaced by stained, ill-fitting thrift store garments.
As soon as he saw me standing in the doorway in my executive suit, his posture crumbled entirely and he dropped to his knees on the asphalt.
“Katon, please, I am begging you, you have to help me,” Pierce choked out, his voice cracking with raw, desperate humiliation.
“Mom and Dad are starving in that terrible apartment, the rent is three months overdue, and I can’t even get a job at a fast-food joint.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, looking down at the man who had once treated me like a domestic servant and laughed at my pain.
“You spent thirty years treating me like garbage, Pierce, and you expected me to finance your lavish wedding while you destroyed our family business,” I reminded him coldly.
“And now you come crawling to my loading dock, begging for charity after I built an empire on the exact ground you ruined?”
Pierce wept openly, pressing his forehead against the cold concrete of the loading dock, completely stripped of every ounce of his former arrogance.
“I was stupid, I was blind, I thought I was better than everyone else because I had a law degree that I don't even have anymore,” he sobbed.
“Just give me a job, Katon, anything, I’ll sweep the floors, I’ll clean the bathrooms, I’ll do whatever you want.”
I looked at him for a long, silent moment, feeling not a shred of anger, nor a single drop of pity, only a vast, empty void.
“There is no place for you here, Pierce,” I stated firmly, my voice cutting through his pathetic whimpering like a razor blade.
“You made your bed when you signed those fraudulent invoices and told me my absence was the greatest gift I could give you.”
“I am honoring your wish, Pierce, and I am permanently removing myself from your pathetic life.”
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I turned my back on him, signaling the security guard to escort him off the private commercial property immediately.
As the heavy steel door slammed shut behind me, locking out the echoes of my brother's weeping, I felt the final chain of my past snap cleanly.
