“My mother is sick,” she whispered. “She was coughing all night. I stayed awake to take care of her. I still had to come to work today. It’s the end of the month. I need my pay to buy her medicine.”
Richard felt a tight pain in his chest.
“And your father?” he asked quietly.
She swallowed hard.
“He died,” she said. “Robbers shot him when I was fourteen. Since then, it’s just been me and my mother.”
The room went silent again.
“I was the best student in my school,” Lena continued, crying now. “I wanted to become a doctor. But there was no money. No help. So I became a maid. It’s the only way I can keep my mother alive.”
Richard stood up slowly.
He took out his phone.
“Call the driver,” he said firmly. “Tell him to bring the car.”
Lena looked up, shocked. “Sir?”
Richard met her eyes.
“You’re taking me to your mother,” he said. “I want to see her.”
Lena could not speak. She just stared at him, tears falling, not from fear this time—but from hope.
The car moved quietly through the early morning streets. Lena sat in the back seat, her hands folded in her lap. She kept stealing small glances at Richard, afraid to speak.