Sergei shook his head.
“I just watched how you moved.”
Anna turned back to him.
“That’s why I want you,” she said.
The word hung in the air heavier than expected.
“Not like that,” she clarified calmly, amused by his sudden stiffness.
“I want your mind. Your hands. Your way of seeing problems.”
She laid out her offer without exaggeration.
A new workshop.
Modern equipment.
A team.
Funding without deadlines.
Freedom to experiment.
Sergei listened, heart pounding, disbelief threatening to overwhelm gratitude.
“You could hire professors,” he said.
“I have,” Anna replied. “They think inside rules. You don’t.”
She leaned closer, voice lowering.
“The world is built by people who fix what others overlook.”
Sergei thought of his garage, the cracked walls, the neighbors who never believed it would last.
“I don’t want charity,” he said carefully.
Anna smiled.
“Good,” she said. “Neither do I.”
The contract she placed before him was surprisingly short.
No ownership clauses.
No traps.
Only partnership.
Sergei signed with hands still trembling slightly, aware his life had just turned without warning or permission.
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