Page 57 of Power

What would I do? Was I willing to blow up my entire careerjust to try to take down someone who probably wouldn’t face any consequences anyway? And not just my careerhere, but my career in general. All for what? To try and root out one bad weed? And probably fail anyway?

History really did have a sick sense of humor. Mom tried to report Dad, and look how that turned out. Now, here I was, ready to report another monster, only to discover that some things never changed. The victims still paid the highest price.

28

SCARLETT

“Fuck.”

“Fuck indeed,” I said, signaling the bartender for another round.

At this rate, Dakota and I would become professional drinkers with all the workplace drama. Being a Monday night, the bar was blissfully quiet, just a few lost souls drifting through while the sun made its slow descent in the evening sky.

“What are you going to do?” Dakota asked, her eyebrows tilted in concern.

I shoved a hand through my hair, probably making it look like I’d stuck my finger in an electrical socket.

“Think. Very, very carefully. This is like playing the most complicated game of chess ever, where one wrong move costs me everything.” I took a long pull of my drink. “Morally? Yeah, warning the company about the vulture in their midst makes perfect sense. But then my practical side kicks in—the side that’s worked her ass off, building this career—and asks if I’m really willing to torch everything just to do the right thing. Especially when said right thing might not even cost him his job. And could cost my mom her safe apartment.”

“So, maybe Jace is the right person to tell?” Dakota suggested. “If HR follows their procedures—and we both know how that usually goes—nothing good might come of it. But Jace … if he’s as good as you say he is …”

“Maybe,” I allowed, tracing patterns in the condensation on my glass. “But I need to see that NDA first. It has to spell out, in black and white, that I’ll have absolute protection if I come forward.”

“And if it does?”

I sighed. “I still have a metric ton of thinking to do. Maybe this makes me a terrible person, wanting to protect myself and my career. Maybe the noble, honorable thing would be to tell them about this creep, consequences be damned. Lord knows that’s the kind of woman I’ve always admired when I see these kinds of stories on the news.” I took another sip. “But I’m not the only one who’ll be hurt if I lose my job, especially if it makes me unhireable everywhere else.”

Dakota nodded, and I felt a surge of gratitude for her unwavering support.

“Still no NDA?” she asked.

I checked my email for the hundredth time. “He said I’d have it by end of day.”

“Look, you had a great weekend with Jace. If he’s half the man you described, he’ll do the right thing.”

“Maybe you’re right.” I straightened my shoulders, feeling a small spark of control return. “The most important thing, the only thing keeping me sane right now, is that the ball’s in my court. No one else gets to decide when or if I pull this trigger.”

My phone buzzed. We both froze, staring at the banner on the screen.

Subject: NDA from Jace Lockwood.

“Open it!” Dakota practically bounced off her barstool.

I opened it, scanning the legal jargon.

“So far, so good,” Dakota mused, watching my face. But when I hit the bottom, her expression changed. “Oh shit. What?”

My heart plummeted to somewhere around my shoes.

“There’s a legally binding clause we didn’t discuss,” I said, my voice hollow.

Ms. West agrees to a meeting tomorrow to disclose the name of an individual she has reported offline to have harassed her.

The realization settled over me like a cold shadow: the meeting requirement fundamentally changed our dynamic. Jace had taken my timeline, my decision-making power.

“He’s giving me legal protection,” I said slowly, trying to separate professional reality from my emotional response. “But he’s also backing me into a corner.”

My fingers tightened around the phone. The career woman in me understood his position. A predator in his company during an acquisition was a liability he needed to address. The woman who’d spent years building her career brick by brick, however, resented having choices made for her again.