The sentence landed across the lobby like another slap.
Victoria turned to me.
For the first time, I saw fear stripped of anger.
“You were here to review me?”
“I was here to review the numbers.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“No,” I said.
“That’s the problem.
You think it is.”
Richard extended his hand toward the head of security.
The security chief stepped forward.
Victoria backed up one pace.
“What are you doing?”
“Your access is suspended effective immediately,” Richard said.
“You cannot be serious.”
“The board’s emergency authority has been invoked pending investigation.”
“I am the CEO.”
“You were the CEO when you walked into this lobby.”
Victoria’s hand flew to the badge clipped discreetly near her jacket pocket.
She covered it instinctively.
The security chief stopped a respectful distance away.
“Ms.
Grant, I need your badge.”
She looked around.
That was the cruelest part, although nobody had planned it that way.
She had spent years making public examples of other people.
Now every person she had taught to fear her was watching her decide whether to surrender a rectangle of plastic.
“Richard,” she said quietly.
He did not answer.
Her gaze moved to the receptionists.
To the junior analyst whose coffee still stained the floor.
To the two clients near the doors.
Then to me.
Her face twisted.
“You did this.”
“No,” I said.
I touched my aching cheek.
“You did this part yourself.”
The security chief held out his hand.
Victoria unclipped the badge.
For a moment she gripped it so tightly her knuckles turned white.
Then she dropped it into his palm.
The small plastic click was almost absurdly soft.
Yet everyone heard it.
The chief legal officer informed her that her company devices and executive access would also be secured.
She would be allowed to retrieve personal belongings later under supervision.
The investigation would determine responsibility for the reporting issues separately from the assault.
Victoria seemed unable to process that the two things could exist at once.
She kept trying to merge them into a single conspiracy.
“You brought Emily here because you wanted me gone.”
Richard shook his head.
“I brought Emily here because three years ago she told me the truth when people with larger titles would not.”
He glanced toward the security cameras.
“You removed yourself.”
Victoria looked at me one last time before security escorted her toward the elevators.
She did not apologize again.
