Part 9:

It’s almost every grant we’ve made in the last 5 years. Richard stood up. I don’t have to listen to this. Your father trusted me to run this foundation, and I’ve done exactly that. My father would be ashamed of what you’ve turned it into.” The words hit like a slap. Richard’s face went red. You have no right. I have every right.

This is my foundation, my money, and you’ve been treating it like your personal retirement fund. You’re done, Richard. I want your resignation by end of business today. You can’t just fire me. I have a contract. Read your contract. There’s a clause about fiduciary responsibility. You violated it repeatedly.

You can resign or I can fire you for cause and make sure everyone in this city knows exactly why. Your choice. Richard looked at Daniel with pure hatred. This is your doing. No, Isabella said, “This is your doing. He just noticed.” Richard grabbed his coat and stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to rattle the glass. Isabella sat down and let out a long breath.

“Well, that felt good and terrible at the same time.” “Welcome to Doing the Right Thing,” Daniel said. “It usually feels like that.” The fallout was immediate. By the next morning, three board members had called demanding to know why Richard had been fired. Two organizations receiving grants threatened lawsuits. The press somehow got wind of it, and by noon, there were reporters in the lobby asking questions about turmoil at the Grant Foundation.

Isabella handled it the only way she knew how. She went on the offensive. She called a press conference for that afternoon. Daniel watched from the back of the room as she stood in front of a dozen cameras and explained exactly what she’d found. Inflated salaries, minimal impact, a foundation that had lost sight of its mission.

“My father built this foundation to help people,” Isabella said. And somewhere along the way, it became about helping the people running the programs, not the people the programs were supposed to serve. that ends today. We’re implementing new standards for every organization we fund. Real measurable outcomes, full financial transparency, and if they can’t meet those standards, we’ll find organizations that can.

A reporter raised her hand. Miss Grant, critics are saying this is a publicity stunt, that you’re using the foundation to rehabilitate your image after After I was rude to an elderly man in a cafe and someone called me out for it. Yeah, that happened. And yeah, it made me take a hard look at how I’ve been living my life, but this isn’t about my image.

This is about making sure $50 million a year actually helps people instead of just making us feel good about ourselves. Another reporter, “Who’s leading these changes?” Isabella looked at Daniel. “We’ve brought in a consultant, Daniel Brooks. He’s going to be overseeing a complete audit of every program we fund.

” Daniel felt every camera in the room turned toward him. He hadn’t agreed to this. She just volunteered him in front of the entire New York press. Later in her office, he confronted her. You can’t just announce things without asking me first. I know. I’m sorry. I I should have checked with you. I have a life, Isabella.

I have Sophie. I can’t just drop everything to run your foundation. I know that, too. But I panicked. They were asking questions and you were right there. And I just She trailed off. I don’t know how to do this without you. Do what? Be better. Make this mean something. I’ve spent my whole life building walls, and you’re the first person in years who’s actually made me want to tear them down.

And that’s terrifying. Daniel sat down. The anger drained out of him, replaced by something more complicated. “You can’t put that on me,” he said quietly. “I’m not responsible for fixing you.” “I know. You’re right. I’m sorry.” They sat in silence for a moment. 3 months, Daniel said finally. You gave me 3 months to decide if this was real.

Same deal applies to you. 3 months to prove you’re serious about this, about changing how the foundation works, about actually helping people instead of just looking like you’re helping people. And if I can prove it, then we talk about what comes next. Isabella nodded. Fair enough.

Over the next few weeks, Daniel fell into a routine. Mornings with Sophie, breakfast, getting her ready for school, drop off, then the foundation until three when he’d pick her up and spend the afternoon being dad. Evenings after she was in bed, he’d go back to his laptop and dig deeper into the grant files. It was exhausting, but it was also the first time in 18 months that he felt like he was doing something that mattered.

Kevin became an unexpected ally. Once he realized Daniel was actually trying to fix things, he opened up about everything he’d noticed over the years. the suspicious invoices, the programs that never seemed to produce results, the board members who rubber stamped every grant because they were too busy to care. I used to speak up, Kevin admitted one afternoon.

When I first started here, I’d question things, but Richard would shut me down and nobody else cared, so eventually I just stopped trying. Well, start trying again, Daniel said. I need someone who knows where all the bodies are buried. Together they built a database of every organization the foundation had funded in the last 5 years.

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