CHAPTER 21: The Opening
The new community center and nursing clinic opened its doors six weeks later—bright, clean, staffed with volunteers and paid professionals, free for anyone who couldn’t afford care. I stood beside Victor as he cut the ribbon, and for the first time in his life, he didn’t look like a king or a boss. He looked like a man who’d finally found his purpose.
When people asked who paid for it, he just smiled and said, “We all did. Every one of us who wants this city to be better.”
Later, as I walked through the clinic rooms, an older woman stopped me. “You’re Victor Voss’s girl, aren’t you? I was scared of your father once. Now I bring my grandson here for checkups. Thank you.”
I found Victor standing by the window, watching kids play in the garden outside. “It worked,” I said. “They don’t see us as untouchable anymore.”
“No,” he said quietly. “They see us as one of them.”
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