Chapter 25
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Angelica kept her head down, buried in her iPad. Breakfast with Hope had been the saving grace of the day so far, because everything else had just spiraled into disaster and dread. She finally had a minute to herself in the conference room.
“Do you want to tell me what the hell’s wrong with you?” Josef barged in.
So much for a minute.
Angelica immediately straightened her back and looked up, surprised to find Rex and Josef coming toward her. Rex, however, didn’t say anything as he slid into the chair next to her instead of across from her. Josef continued to glare.
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” Angelica said sharply.
“You’re screwing up the entire episode. You’re just so…despondent.”
Angelica wanted to snort at that comment. She’d been quieter during filming that day, that was for sure. Hope had taken the brunt of everything, pushing to get from the beginning of a scene to the end, and Angelica had been so thankful for that. It’d been the exact reprieve she’d needed.
How could she even explain this to him in a way that he might understand and drop it?
She was actually impressed that he’d even noticed a difference in her countenance today.
Angelica glanced toward Rex, wondering if he’d step in and explain.
Perhaps that’s what Josef needed—a man to tell him what’s what.
“I have only an hour break for lunch, Josef. Was there something you needed to discuss with me?” Angelica rolled the electronic pencil in her fingers, using it as a distraction.
She really didn’t want to dive deeper into why she was off because she’d already tried that with him and had failed miserably.
“Get your act together. I don’t want to have to scrap this episode because you’re moody.”
“That’s a bit uncalled for,” Rex stepped in, his hand flat on the table. And he wasn’t looking at Angelica, his eyes were locked on Josef.
Angelica raised her eyebrows at him, surprised that he’d even bothered to say anything. He’d never actually done that to Josef before.
“Let’s take the lunch for what it is and come back in the afternoon a bit more refreshed, all right?” Rex stared at Josef still.
Josef gaped, then shook his head. “Fine.”
Angelica would probably feel the wrath behind that later on when it was just her and Josef in a room together. He could be such an ass when he wanted to be—and when he didn’t.
“Thank you,” she said as soon as Josef was gone.
“He’s been an ass all day.”
Angelica grunted her agreement but didn’t say anything else.
She was exhausted from being on guard with Julian wandering around the hotel and trying to find her every chance that he got.
She relaxed as much as she could when she wasn’t alone, but at least with Josef gone and only Rex for company it was a bit easier now.
She was about to jump into another schedule when Rex’s throat clearing caught her attention.
“Ange, someone wants to talk to you I think.”
Angelica furrowed her brow and then looked from Rex toward the door.
“Sorry to bother you.” The woman was young, and she held her hands together in front of her. Angelica hadn’t seen her before, but she didn’t seem lost. “They said I could find Angelica Shields in here?”
“They?” Rex asked, jumping in before Angelica could say anything.
“The crew?” Everything this woman said sounded like a question. “Sorry, I’m Jennifer Plante.” She gave a weak smile, stepped farther into the room, and shut the door. “You sent me an email.”
“Right.” Angelica’s brain flicked from curiosity to understanding. “Come, sit.” She glanced at Rex. “Do you mind if Rex is here? He’s our director.”
Jennifer shook her head and pushed her long hair over her shoulder as she sat down. “I really just don’t want to see Julian.”
“I can take care of that.” Rex stood up and left.
Angelica was surprised at how quickly he reacted, but she was also extremely curious what Jennifer was here for.
“Do you have a minute? I don’t mean to interrupt anything.”
“You caught me at the perfect time.” Angelica smiled at her. Jennifer was nervous. Just about anyone within a mile should be able to see that. “What can I do for you?”
“You wanted to know why I left, and I honestly wasn’t going to come talk to you, but you also spoke with Tashi, and she said you were good people. That I could trust you.”
Angelica almost confirmed that she was trustworthy, but she also knew that could immediately make Jennifer suspicious. “I remember speaking with Tashi.”
“Julian. He’s why I left.” Jennifer sighed out those words, as if just saying them was a relief. “I should have done something about it back then, but I needed another job with a good reference. I’m a single mom, and I can’t let my kids go without food on the plate and a roof over their heads.”
“I understand.” And she did. Angelica had been in enough situations in her life that she understood exactly the choices that women made in order to survive into the next day or the next job. They’d always put children first and themselves last. “What did Julian do?”
“Harassment was the least of it.” Jennifer’s eyes watered. “The touching was the worst of it. But he never took it beyond unwanted touches. He never… raped me.”
Angelica breathed in sharply. “How long did it last?”
“Almost the entire time I worked here. I think it started my second week.”
Angelica’s heart broke. “How long did you work here again?”
“A year. The pay was good. The benefits better. But I had to leave. I just couldn’t keep coming in every day knowing that he was going to be here. Walking in here today was hard enough.”
“I understand.” Angelica breathed slowly. She’d heard similar stories, though she had a feeling that Jennifer was interested in sharing far more detail than the others were. Otherwise she wouldn’t have come all the way down here.
They talked for the next hour, and Angelica was surprised when Rex popped his head back in to catch her attention. “Josef.”
“I need to get back anyway,” Jennifer smiled at Angelica. “Thanks, though.”
“Would you file a report? If you had the opportunity?” Angelica asked.
Jennifer shook her head and then stopped. “I don’t know.”
“Think about it. I think it could benefit more than just you, but you have to do it for you.”
“All right.” Jennifer gave her a half smile before standing up.
“Sy and Lyric will escort you out.” Rex nodded at Jennifer. “Julian is currently occupied in the kitchen with my wife anyway.”
“Good.” Jennifer grinned at him, and it was so nice to see.
Angelica waited for the room to clear before Josef and Rex came back in.
Rex shut the door and gave Angelica a hard look and shook his head at her.
When they were all sitting again, Angelica wasn’t quite sure where to start or what exactly they were there to tell her.
Usually it was something she’d done wrong, but they’d already had that discussion today.
“I think we need to expose Julian Tower,” Rex said.
“Expose him?” Josef shook his head wildly. “There’s no proof, Rex. Nothing he’s being accused of has happened unless we can prove it did, and we’re not in that line of work.”
Angelica’s heart sank. She was so tired of hearing this same line from Josef. He was always trying to protect himself and the company, which she understood, but sometimes, there was more at stake than that. She crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat.
“If we don’t stand up for what’s right, then we’re not better than Julian.”
Josef barked out a laugh. “I’m not trying to be better than Julian. I’m trying to make a show and make money.”
“At what cost?” Angelica fired back.
“There’s no cost.” Josef shook his head at her. “Absolutely none. He’s not doing anything because we have no proof of anything. And that means, we continue as planned.”
“As planned?” Angelica leaned forward, finally ready to say her piece. “He touched me, Josef. I told you that he did. And you’re still going to say there’s no proof?”
“There isn’t.” Josef’s beady eyes locked on her. “Where’s the video? Where’s the confession? How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“Why the fuck would I lie?”
Josef canted his head at her. “I don’t know, Ange. But I’ve seen you lie about relationships before.”
“So now you’re accusing me of being in a relationship with Julian? Your attacks on me have no bounds, do they?” Angelica stared at him in shock.
“Proof or it didn’t happen.” Josef looked directly at Rex. “Proof of any inappropriate relationship, not just Julian Tower, to be clear. I won’t talk about this any further.” Josef stormed out of the room, leaving Angelica and Rex in his wake.
“Fuck,” Angelica cursed, throwing her pen onto the table and rolling her eyes.
“I’m not sure I ever realized just how much he hates you,” Rex muttered.
Angelica choked out a laugh of agreement. “Me either.”
“So…Ange…what are we going to do about this situation?” Rex looked at her directly. “Because I don’t like Julian. I haven’t seen anything that I can say was harassment or assault one way or another, but I’m also not willing to put anyone on the line to experience something when they don’t have to.”
Angelica frowned. “I don’t think we have a choice on that one.”
“Of course there’s a choice.”
“You’re thinking like a man, Rex. Women haven’t had the choice for generations. And that’s not going to change today.”
“Make it change.”
“What?” Angelica’s stomach dropped.
“Make it change.” Rex looked at the door and then back to her, lowering his voice.
“If you want to do something about this, Ange, I’ll support you.
I know Hope will. But I’m not going to take away your power by making you do something you’re not ready for.
I’m here to tell you that woman, Jennifer?
She’s not the only one who has a story like that. ”
Angelica’s stomach tightened. She knew that Jennifer wasn’t alone with her stories.
She’d heard them over and over again in the last week since she started digging into Julian Tower and his retention issue.
But she still had no hard and fast proof.
This was the exact reason why women never reported these things.
The knock on the door was light but swift. Hope stepped inside, stopping short when she saw the intensity of the conversation. Her lips parted and quivered. Angelica knew instantly that she thought this was something it wasn’t.
“We were taking about Julian and his sordid history with employees,” Angelica said quickly.
Instantly, Hope relaxed. Her shoulders dropped down, her face went slack, and she even nearly smiled. But still, the awkwardness having only the three of them in the room was strong enough that it was a struggle for Angelica to stay seated and not see herself out.
“I was trying to convince Ange that we need to do something about this problem.” Rex gave Hope a pointed a look. “But she’s refusing.”
“I’m not.” Angelica shot him a glare. “But again, proof. And then you have to deal with Josef.”
“Let me deal with Josef.”
Hope sat down slowly in between the two of them. “I’m not sure I should join in on this conversation.”
Angelica sighed heavily. She didn’t like being pressured into anything, and Rex wasn’t helping that any. Josef pressuring her to do nothing was one thing but now Rex was pushing her to do the opposite. She couldn’t win no matter what.
“Angel?” Hope asked, her gaze soft and imploring. “You’re not someone who backs down, so what’s going on?”
Angelica clenched her jaw tightly. She couldn’t say that out loud. Not in front of Rex. She didn’t need to give him any ideas that he wasn’t already having, and she’d already directly told Hope. Though she’d denied it.
“Okay, maybe we start with this.” Hope pointed at Rex but stared at Angelica.
“Let Rex go through the dailies and the footage to see what he can find and if there is any footage of Julian doing something. He can probably have Sy and some of the other crew pull the security footage from the hotel and start to sort through that. If he finds something, then we have proof, and we can confront Julian or turn it over to the authorities.”
That didn’t sound unreasonable, though Angelica had her doubts that they’d actually find anything.
“And you…” Hope pointed at Angelica now “…you said there were former employees.”
“She met with one today,” Rex supplied.
“Another complaint?” Hope waited for Angelica’s nod to continue.
“Let’s see if any of them would be willing to confront Julian or join together to make a report.
If they are, then we plan for something.
Sometimes, we just have to find someone willing to say this isn’t right.
Then someone will stand up and do the right thing. ”
Angelica wanted to believe that. She really did.
But the way Josef had reacted wasn’t the first time that she’d faced something like that in her past. And with the fact that her relationship with Hope wasn’t that far off from what Julian was doing, she wasn’t sure that she could be that person for these women.
How was she any better than them?
Consent, yes.
Power imbalance? Absolutely.
And Hope ignoring that fact wasn’t going to change it. Angelica might not be assaulting women all over the hotel, but what she and Hope were doing was inappropriate on some level. And Hope had to admit that. Rex knew it, didn’t he?
When she glanced at him, he was looking directly at her. “What do you think, Ange?”
She didn’t have an answer. Because her thoughts were so jumbled and mixed up that she could barely pull a thread out of them.
“All right. Rex, let’s just get to work and go from there.” Hope nodded at him in a dismissal and then scooted closer to Angelica. When he’d disappeared, Hope clasped Angelica’s hand gently to get her attention. “Are you okay?”
“No.” Angelica frowned, shaking her head. “No, I’m not.”