Untitled Part 7
"Oh—it's you, Daisy."
His tone turned syrupy.
"Why'd you splash Uncle Martin like that?"
Daisy tilted the cup and dumped the last few drops right into his face.
"You splashed her," she said.
"So I can splash you too."
Then she climbed down from the chair with deliberate slowness.
A second later, she broke into a run for the hallway.
"Dad! Dad!" she shouted.
"Come out here, quick!"
The whole thing blew up fast.
By the entrance to our department, a crowd had already gathered, pretending not to stare while very obviously staring.
Daisy pointed at Manager Brooks.
"He just dumped—"
She glanced at me.
At first, she used to call me Claire.
Later, after she found out I was going to marry her dad, she stopped calling me anything at all.
After a pause, she went on,
"He spilled coffee all over this lady."
"And he kept trying to grab her."
Ethan's gaze locked on Manager Brooks and didn't move.
As he stepped closer, the pressure rolling off him was almost suffocating, the kind that came from someone used to being the most powerful person in every room.
"You harassed a female employee?"
Manager Brooks was sweating through his shirt.
"Mr. Sterling, I'm sorry, I—"
"That's not necessarily harassment."
Another voice cut in before he could finish.
Vanessa walked over with a smile.
"There aren't any cameras in the break room, so how can anyone say for sure it was harassment?"
"Maybe Claire misunderstood."
Manager Brooks jumped on that immediately.
"Exactly!"
"I didn't harass her. I just accidentally spilled some coffee and tried to hand her a few napkins."
He looked at me with righteous indignation.
"Claire, don't go making false accusations."
"I'm a married man. Everybody in this company knows I keep myself respectable."
"You don't even have a boyfriend, and then all of a sudden you had a miscarriage. If your private life is a mess, don't drag me into it."
He deliberately raised his voice on that last sentence.
More people turned to look.
Their stares hit me from all directions, sharp as pins.
Daisy threw her head back and shouted at him,
"I saw it! You kept trying to grab her!"
Manager Brooks smiled.
"She's a child. Kids make things up all the time."
Ethan looked at Vanessa for two full seconds before turning back to Manager Brooks.
"Claire is married. I approved her marriage leave myself."
"And what exactly does a miscarriage have to do with someone having an immoral private life?"
"You harassed an employee and now you're trying to slander—"
"Even if she's married, that still doesn't prove Martin harassed her."
Vanessa cut him off again, then lowered her voice.
Only Ethan and I could hear her.
"Martin is leading a major project right now. No one can replace him. Don't make an emotional decision."