“Understatement.”
“I know.”
A pause.
Then: “I did not ask HR to place her here.”
You study him.
Could be true.
He was always more negligent than directly scheming. Letting things happen around him until they curdled. Letting assistants, trustees, and hopeful young women interpret proximity as promise because correcting it in time required clarity he wasn’t ready to offer.
Still.
The result is the same.
“She should never have been on this floor,” you say.
“I know.”
“And yet she was.”
He nods once.
“I’m dealing with it.”
Yes, and there is the marrow-deep issue again. Ethan believes dealing with it after the blast still counts as leadership. Sometimes it does institutionally. Personally, it’s almost always too late.
He looks at you more carefully. “Did Madison talk to you?”
You say nothing.
His expression answers its own question.
“She did.”
