She thinks about Harrison's daughter, Sophie, a sophomore at Stanford, who has done nothing wrong. She thinks about the 40,000 Whitmore Industries employees whose pensions are tied to the stock that will crater the moment she presses send. She thinks about Edward Brooks who has spent 19 years carrying a man's cruelty in his back pocket like a stone. Her phone rings again. Theodore?
Theodore? How bad? He just sent me a threat in writing on the same night he humiliated me in front of 400 people. Send the kill order tonight, Whitney. Right now.
We have everything we need. No. A long silence on the line. Whitney, are you sure about this? I want him to walk into that signing room tomorrow morning and have one more chance to be a human being.
One. If he is, we go ahead with Foundry. If he is not, I want every camera in the room to watch what happens next. You are giving him a chance to apologize. I am giving him a chance to recognize me.
There is a difference. And if he does not? Then the way this ends will not be my responsibility. It will be his. Whitney, I have to ask you one more time.
Are you sure? I am sure, Theo. All right. I am with you. I will be downstairs at 10:40 in the morning.
She hangs up. She closes the laptop. She does not press send. At 11:47 that night, Margaret Sullivan posts a 90-second video to the Wall Street Chronicle website. She titles it, Watch what this billionaire said at his own charity gala tonight.
By 1:00 in the morning, the video has crossed 800,000 views. By 3:00 in the morning, 4 million. The comments are a flood. This man called a woman trash to her face on a recording, and we are supposed to keep buying products from his company? I work two jobs, and I have more class than this billionaire.
This is exactly why nothing ever changes. Nobody important ever pays. Whitney is awake on her couch reading them. She keeps coming back to that last one. She reads it five times.
Nobody important ever pays. She closes the laptop. She lies down on her couch in her clothes. She does not sleep. She watches the rain hit the window until the sky starts to turn gray.