“Christy, we’ve learned that the sex scandal attributed to you was in fact true”—she started in her chair—“but it was true about someone other than you.” Christy nodded her head, as if to say, Yeah, I told you.
Karl looked at Christy sheepishly. He had been completely seduced by Katherine. “The company is in a bind. There’s a scandal brewing with our new operations in India. We don’t know if the news will be leaked or not, but we’re sitting on a time bomb. We know that if we fire Katherine without bringing you back, it will signal big trouble at the company. Two CEOs gone in six months—not a good story. The stock will tank. The company may not recover.”
Rami Shah seconded the plea. This seemed well choreographed to Christy. The worst offenders were each personally making the case to her. Eating their percentage of the humble pie chart.
“If I were to come back, what would happen to Katherine?” Christy was playing her poker face, not letting them read anything into her question.
Warren Heider spoke. “We’ll put her on special projects, until this blows over, and then fire her quietly a year from now. We would have had to let her go anyway. You were right about her all along.” Christy heard nothing after special projects. She was busy doing little victory dances in her head. Now that she had partaken of the sweet nectar of revenge, she had to figure out what to do. Her baby was in jeopardy, all the people she cared about, present company excluded.
“Gentlemen, I’m sorry to hear that the company we all worked so hard to build is in trouble, and I’m gratified that your confidence in me has been restored. I’ll get back to you very soon with my decision.” Short and sweet felt like her best bet. She needed to get out of this room and think things through. She rose, and they all rose with her. She cracked up at that, and so did they. It was hard to miss the ludicrousness that is the daily fare of capitalism. General Hospital had nothing on Baby G. Christy slipped out the door, catching a last glance at seven faces trying to look dignified in their moment of need.
Christy walked down the broad, open hallway toward her old office. The door was open, and she peeked inside. It had been completely redecorated. Everything was upgraded. The wool carpet had been replaced with silk Persian rugs. Instead of Christy’s Office Depot furniture, the room was filled with marvelous antiques that must have cost Baby G a fortune.
Behind a sleek Art Deco maplewood writing desk, Katherine stood to greet her. “What do you think of the new furniture?” she asked.
Christy kept her reservations to herself. “Impressive.”
“We got it at Sotheby’s. It’s from David Rockefeller’s estate. He died, you know.”
“So I heard.”
“Well,” Katherine said, looking into Christy’s eyes, “have you thought about the board’s offer? Are you and I going to have a second act?” Her expression was conspiratorial. The Christy she knew would never be able to resist saving her labor of love. Katherine seemed oblivious to the fact that her own neck was on the chopping block.
Christy walked over to the antique desk. “No, I don’t think so. I appreciate the gesture. I do. But it’s funny. I love my new life. I don’t care about being famous anymore. I don’t need to conquer the world.”
“Christy, please, take more time to think about this. Reconsider. For me.” Katherine bit her lip, and her face took on a nervous blotchy glow.
“What is it? Is there something you aren’t telling me?”
She shook her head. “I can’t.”
“Of course you can,” Christy said in that sister-voice she used to use with Katherine. “You’ve always been able to tell me anything.”
Katherine took a deep breath. She gazed out the window for a moment before speaking. Turning back to Christy, she said, “Well, I did something. Something I shouldn’t have, something that, when it comes out, could get me fired, or sued, or, I don’t know, maybe sent to jail.”
Christy bit her cheek to keep from screaming, YES! There is a God. Instead, she kept her face sober and said, “Katherine, tell me everything.”
Katherine began to pace. “We moved our operations to India to cut costs. You don’t have to pay people shit there. That’s what makes it so attractive. Anyway, there was this fire at the factory a couple of weeks ago. An exit door had been blocked by machinery we had just brought in. There was only one other way out, and eight workers were killed trying to escape.”
“Katherine, that’s terrible. Those poor people.”
“Well, yes, that, too. But the real victim here is Baby G. So far, we’ve been able to keep our involvement under wraps in America. But that meddling reporter, Galit Portal, got wind of it. She wrote an article. Then she held us up for a million dollars to kill the story. I thought that was the end of it. But now she’s in some kind of trouble over taking bribes. The Financial Journal’s about to run a big exposé on its own reporter. They’re disclosing everything about the accident in India and how I paid to keep it out of the paper. Our stock price will tank.”
Christy’s jaw just about hit the floor. “What? You actually paid Galit to hush up the story?”
“Yes.”
“Does the board know?” Christy asked. She couldn’t believe they would agree to anything that sordid.
“No, and I was hoping you could talk to them for me. Apparently Galit got caught blackmailing someone else. They arrested her. The news is going to hit the paper any day.”
Oh my God, Christy thought. Wait’ll Katherine finds out she was hoist by her own nanny-cam. She shook her head in wonder. The universe works in such strange and perfect ways. “Gosh, that’s a shame, Katherine. But you know what?
