Chapter 2 - The Street Corner Sanctuary“You’re quiet,” Hannah said, wiping down the flat-top grill with a damp cloth as the afternoon rush began to taper off.
Ethan swallowed the last bite of the roasted potatoes and looked up. “Just thinking.”
“About what? Quantum physics? Or just where your next meal is coming from?”
“A bit of both,” Ethan replied, leaning back in the folding chair. “How long have you run this cart, Hannah?”
“Three years,” she said simply, pausing to tie back a stray lock of dark blond hair. “My dad left me the permit and an old grill when he passed away. People told me to sell the license to a franchise and buy a condo. But I like it out here. You see the real city from a street corner. Not the sanitized version inside the corporate towers.”
Ethan winced slightly, feeling a sudden, heavy pang of guilt. His office was on the forty-second floor of one of those exact corporate towers.
“Doesn’t it get lonely?” Ethan asked softly. “Or difficult? Especially when people treat you like... well, like what happened over there earlier.”
Hannah stopped cleaning, her brown eyes meeting his with a quiet, unshakeable strength.
“People only judge you by what’s in your pockets when they’re empty inside themselves,” Hannah said, her voice completely devoid of self-pity. “If someone needs to step on a guy in a thrift-store jacket to feel important, that’s their problem, not yours. You survived it. Now move on.”
Ethan stared at her.
She didn't know he was worth billions. She didn't know he could buy the entire city block with pocket change. And yet, her words hit him harder than any board meeting lecture he had ever received.
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For the first time in his adult life, Ethan realized he didn't want to go back to his penthouse at sunset.
He wanted to stay right here.
