“And the neighborhoods that trusted us to install them when the big utility companies ignored them,” I added.

Mom stepped between me and Marcus, her laughter sounding forced and high-pitched.

“Sarah is always so focused on the community,” she said, her voice strained. “But Marcus, surely the readers want to know about the leadership. The family dynamic.”

“Actually,” Marcus said, tapping his notepad with his pen. “The community aspect is what makes it a feature story.”

He looked past my mother, his eyes tracing the line of our engineering schematics on the wall.

“How many homes in this district are currently running on your backup systems?” he asked.

“Forty-two,” Derek said from the shadows. “Mostly low-income housing units near the canal.”

Marcus wrote something down in his notebook.

“And you’re monitoring them from here?” he asked.

“We were,” I said. “Until our main server lost primary power.”

Mom’s face paled slightly as she realized she was losing control of the conversation.

She reached into her handbag and pulled out her phone, her fingers moving quickly across the screen.