Malcolm Avery was the older janitor most people at Ridgewell Systems barely noticed. That Tuesday morning, he was finishing the marble floor in the company's main lobby when Lydia Crane walked through the doors carrying coffee.

Lydia found Eli in the employee cafeteria, seated beneath a window streaked with rain. She placed a sealed envelope beside his untouched soup.

"You are bright," she said. "Bright people understand when a situation is larger than their conscience."

Eli did not touch the envelope. "What is it?"

"A permanent offer. Operations analyst. Better salary. Your mother's old termination package reviewed favorably. In exchange, you will sign a statement saying Malcolm coached you to accuse me."

The cafeteria noise seemed to recede. Forks clicked. The espresso machine hissed. Eli thought of his mother's apartment, where the heat failed twice each winter, and of the loan notices folded beneath her fruit bowl.

"And if I refuse?"

"Your internship ends today. So does your mother's chance of receiving anything from Ridgewell."

Eli looked at the envelope. "You are offering me a job to lie about a man who cleans floors."

"I am offering you a future."

"A future that begins with a false statement."

Lydia leaned forward. "Truth is not a virtue when it destroys people who cannot afford it."

"That sounds like something a person says after destroying people."

She left the envelope behind.

That evening, Eli carried it to Malcolm's apartment above a shuttered bakery. Malcolm lived among labeled boxes, dead plants, and the careful silence of someone who had stopped expecting visitors. He read the offer without surprise.

"You should take it," Malcolm said.

Eli stared at him. "You told me to tell the truth."

"I told you to choose what you can live with. Those are not always the same instruction."

Eli opened the envelope. Beneath the contract lay a photograph of Daniela Mercer leaving Ridgewell in the rain, her face turned toward the camera. On the back, someone had written: SHE SIGNED THE SECOND COPY.