“I don’t know where you heard that, but that’s false.” He puts his hands out, palms up. “We’re status quo here. Nothing has changed. The only thing we’re doing, like I said, is streamlining a little bit. Cutting the fat.”
Oh, wrong move, buster. Calling me fat.
“I believe you, Frank. As we both know, whenever a software company—like this one, for example—wants to bring in money from new investors, that’s the first thing it does. Cuts the fat. That’s stage one. The next stage is to give the money men a little tour. Romance them. Maybe you’ll even be tacky enough to take them to a strip club. But that’s really not my problem. The only one who has a problem here is you.”
A storm cloud moves over Frank’s expression. “What exactly are you saying?”
“You know what I’m saying. Tell me you’re not that na?ve.”
“Spell it out for me.” He’s no longer playing stupid. Now he’s daring me to continue. But he must have mistaken me for some brainless cow if he thought I wasn’t going to rise to that challenge.
“See, there’s another part of this process that I’m fully aware of, having been a part of it before, and I’m sure you’re well aware of it too, which would explain why you’re trying to play dumb with me right now.”
He tries to interrupt, but I keep going. “When these new investors conduct their due diligence on this company, they’re going to ask you if you’ve entered into any lawsuits with anyone. And they’re also going to ask you if there are any threatened lawsuits.” I pause a few seconds to let that sink in.
Frank gives me a sly smile. “If that were the case, and I’m not saying that it is, there wouldn’t be any problem for us. Because, as everyone knows, our balance sheet is clean. We have no lawsuits, nor any threatened lawsuits. All of our patents are up to date, and we haven’t used anybody else’s intellectual property in our work. You of all people should know that, since you headed our committee for purity of IP.”
I never liked that stupid title. Purity of IP? What does that even mean? He acts like this company was always coming up with fresh ideas, but Frank wouldn’t know a fresh idea if it was attached to a two-by-four that bapped him over the head. It’s time he got a little wake-up call, and he has no idea who he’s messing with. I’m the girl who just handled a midnight break-in without peeing her pants. Last night, I was super-spy. Today, I’m an avenging angel, making sure I get a fair shake from this turdbasket.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
You’re forgetting one little thing, Frank,” I say, my nostrils flaring as I try to hold in my anger. I didn’t want to have to go here with him, but I don’t like how he handled things with me. And I really don’t like the way he’s talking to me as if I’m stupid. And I really, really don’t like how he let me hang out in the wind, high and dry, after promising me a promotion less than a month ago. He must think I was born yesterday.
“Remember the promotion you promised me? Remember how you asked me to work all those extra hours, and told me I was going to get paid for it in the end with my promotion? How you told me I was management material?”
He gives me a pitying smile. “Jenny, this is all water under the bridge now. It’s over. You just need to let it go.”
“Don’t you dare look at me with that cocky expression on your face and act like you feel sorry for me. The only one you should be feeling sorry for right now is you, because you underestimated me. You took advantage of me like you take advantage of all of your employees, and you thought you were going to keep getting away with it. Maybe you have for a really long time, but that’s done. I’m not going to put up with it. Everybody knows that I was the one selected to be fired because I have children and because I am a single mother. There is no other reason. I have a better work record than anyone else on this floor.”
“Who told you that?”
I can’t keep my volume from rising. I didn’t want to think he was going to try to paint me as a slacker and a person who deserved to lose her job, but I suspect that’s what’s about to happen, and it makes me livid just to imagine it. “Nobody had to tell me that! Everyone knows it. It’s obvious. And this may be an at-will employment situation, and I may not have a contract with you for my job, but that does not mean that you can fire me just because I have children. There are some laws that you have to follow in this state. And you know what? Maybe what you did skirts the edge of legal, but it also skirts the edge of illegal. It’s definitely not right, I know that. This is not how you treat people.”