Beef And A Thirty-Year Grudge

When Brian was nineteen, he stole three pounds of beef from a butcher because their mother had been starving in bed for three days. The butcher pressed charges, their mother begged on her knees and was spat at, and Brian served a year. By his release, she was dead, and he was broken beyond repair.

Thirty years later, Brian runs his own company. When an employee named Derek embezzles fifty thousand dollars, Brian hands him to the police. Derek's father, Gary, arrives with medical records and a failing kidney, begging for mercy. Brian refuses: a crime is a crime.

Then Tristan, Brian's fiancé and Vice President, storms in to shield Derek, invoking the coming IPO and public image. Brian holds firm, and Tristan threatens a board meeting to remove him. Hours later, Gary is live-streaming from the company lobby.