Part 6
“There is none.”
“Then we have no issue.”
The call ended after forty-three minutes with no resolution except the emergency meeting.
Adrian found Mara’s number in his phone before he remembered he did not have it.
He called the resort general manager instead.
Russell answered.
“Mr. Vale.”
“Is Mara Ellis working today?”
A pause.
“No, sir.”
“Was she fired?”
“No.”
“Suspended?”
“Placed on paid administrative leave pending review.”
“For picking up a blanket?”
“For entering a private guest matter and speaking publicly afterward.”
“She spoke publicly?”
“We’re investigating.”
“What did she say?”
“I can’t discuss an employee interview.”
“You understand who you’re speaking to.”
“Yes, sir.”
The answer embarrassed Adrian.
Russell continued. “That’s why I’m being careful.”
Adrian leaned back.
“Was she interviewed with counsel present?”
“She is not accused of misconduct requiring counsel.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“No.”
“Does she have union representation?”
“The property is nonunion.”
“Of course it is.”
Russell’s voice cooled. “Mr. Vale, you instructed me last night not to punish her because of pressure from an important client. I am now asking you not to create pressure in the opposite direction.”
Adrian looked toward Naomi, who was pretending not to listen from across the therapy room.
“What are you investigating?”
“Whether she recorded or distributed the video.”
“She was in front of the camera.”
“She may have known someone else was recording.”
“That is speculation.”
“Yes. Which is why we’re investigating.”
“Who took the video?”
“We don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“We’re trying.”
Adrian ended the call.
Naomi folded a resistance band into a neat square.
“You sound like your father when you’re frightened.”
“I’m not frightened.”
“You called a hotel manager and reminded him you’re powerful.”
“I reminded him the company owns the resort.”
“That is the definition of reminding someone you’re powerful.”
“She may lose her job because she helped me.”
“She may also lose it because the internet turned her into a symbol and everyone around her panicked.”
“That is not her fault.”
“No.”
Adrian rubbed his forehead.
Naomi rolled closer on a low stool.
“What do you actually want?”
“To make sure she isn’t punished.”
“Then ask what she wants before you save her.”
He stared at the navy blanket folded on the chair beside him.
The resort had sent it down that morning with his coat. Someone had cleaned the corner. The silver border looked untouched.
At ten thirty, Mara sat in the passenger seat of her brother’s aging Subaru outside an urgent care clinic in Silverthorne.
Her hands smelled like sanitizer and burnt coffee.
Noah Ellis came out twenty minutes after his appointment wearing a red knit cap and carrying a paper bag of medication. He was twenty-one, tall, chronically underweight, and trying to conceal the limp that appeared whenever the temperature dropped below freezing.
Mara unlocked the door.
“How bad?” she asked.
“Not bad.”
“That means bad.”
“It means the doctor said I should stop working outside.”
“You work at a ski rental shop.”
“He noticed.”
She watched him buckle his seat belt. “Did you tell him about the numbness?”
“He had the chart.”
“Noah.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“He wants another scan.”
Mara looked through the windshield at the clinic’s automatic doors. People passed in winter coats, carrying folders and little white pharmacy bags.
“When?”
“They’ll call.”
“When did you last charge your phone?”
“It’s at twelve percent.”
“So never.”
He opened the medication bag. “You’re doing the voice.”
“What voice?”
“The one where every word is a separate court order.”
She started the car.
Noah studied her. “Did you get fired?”
“No.”
“Suspended?”
“Paid leave.”
“That sounds like getting fired with extra steps.”
“It isn’t.”
“You were tagged in a video by a woman in Ohio who makes reaction clips about rich people. You have two hundred thousand followers.”
“I don’t have an account.”
“She made one using your name.”
Mara closed her eyes.
Noah held up his phone. “Someone also started a fundraiser for you.”
“What?”
“They think you’re a single mother.”
“I’m not a mother.”
“Apparently you have three children and a sick dog.”
“We don’t have a dog.”
“I know. It would improve the apartment.”
She pulled out of the parking space too quickly and braked when a truck crossed behind them.
Noah gripped the door.
“Sorry.”
“You’re doing great.”
Mara drove toward the highway.
She had not watched the full video. She saw enough at two in the morning to recognize her own face, pale and furious, as she knelt beside Adrian. Then comments began appearing beneath photographs she had forgotten were public: graduation pictures, a hiking trip, a Thanksgiving dinner at their aunt’s house.
Some called her an angel.
Some called her an actress.
Some asked whether she and Adrian were sleeping together.
One message contained her apartment address.
She had forwarded that one to resort security and then sat on the bathroom floor until dawn because she did not want Noah to hear her pacing.
“You should come stay with me,” she said.
“I already stay with you.”
“I mean tonight. Don’t go to work.”
“My shift starts at noon.”
“Call in.”
“We need rent.”
“I’m being paid.”
“You’re being paid until they fire you.”
She tightened her grip on the steering wheel.
Noah looked out the window. “Sorry.”
Mara exhaled. “No. You’re right.”
“What did the resort say?”
“That they’re investigating who recorded the video.”
“Wasn’t you.”
“I know.”
“Tell them that.”
“I did.”
“Then what’s left?”
“They asked whether Mr. Vale spoke to me before dinner. Whether I had seen him at the resort. Whether I knew about his recovery.”
“You didn’t.”
“No.”
“Then they’re stupid.”
“They’re scared.”
“Same result.”
Mara drove past a row of snow-covered pines. A plow had cleared the highway, leaving gray walls of packed snow along the shoulder.
Noah opened the glove compartment and found three old receipts, a flashlight without batteries, and a peppermint.
“Do you think he was testing her?”
“Yes.”
“That’s messed up.”
May you like
Mara glanced at him.
“What she did was worse,” he added.
