She nods once, the smile slowly melting into a grimace. “I get it,” she says. “I’m not happy about it, but I get it now. Our relationship was based more on familiarity than anything and that’s not what you want. I can only hope that you change your mind. Call me if you do.”
She stands up. I stand up as well, reaching forward to reassure her, but she steps out of my reach.
“Goodbye, Mark,” she says. “I’ll be on a red-eye tonight.”
She walks out of my office. I sit back down and pick up my cell phone.
I know what I need to do now.
Chapter 15:
Zandra
Morning straggles into my bedroom as I lay on top of my covers, pretending that I can sleep. Instead of counting sheep, I count regrets. My problem is that I never jumped into anything with both feet. I stayed at 2Resonance, despite knowing Mark was the owner, but every time we nurtured a spark of desire between us, I shut it down and ran away. I should have stayed away or fallen completely for Mark, but I straddled the line.
And I shouldn’t have rejected Mark’s offer so quickly. Trident Bank is a well-respected bank. The pay would be better. And, despite my deepest reservations, I know that Mark has the best intentions. I dwell on my regrets while he fully immerses himself in them. He's the opposite of Tom, who pretended that all his actions somehow benefited me, but they always aligned with his ability to control me. Mark offered me options, not instructions.
My phone vibrates on the nightstand. I check it.
Aaron: Did you know about this?
I reply,know about what?
Aaron: THE NEWS. Go to LRC news website!! Click on first link!!!
I switch to the web app on my phone. I type in LRC’s website. On a red banner at the top of the page, large white letters announce,2Resonance Owner Reveals Next Step.I click on the link as my chest tightens.
It leads to a live streaming video. I’d thought it was going to be an article, but as Mark appears in a split-screen on the right side, it sends a shock through me. I tighten my grip on my phone.
“—And after you’d begun the process of this ad, you continued to push the deadline?” the news anchor, Samuel Ortiz, who is on the left side of the screen, asks.
“Yes,” Mark says. “I told my supervisors to pay overtime and do anything they could to get everything accomplished quickly. Even if anyone working on the ad wanted to do background checks on the bands, they wouldn’t have had the time to do it. I made it abundantly clear to all of my employees that their priority should be on promptness.”
Samuel’s eyebrows are raised in performative surprise. “And you were motivated by getting an ad out to get revenge on Tunest?”
“I wanted to get the ad out fast so that the public would see that Tunest’s narrative was wrong and reductive,” Mark says. “It’s an unfortunate psychological bias that people tend to believe the first chunk of information they hear. We wanted to avoid that information from setting into people’s minds. I still know that Tunest’s narrative is false. Everyone on my team knows that it’s false. But I took on the issue in an undisciplined approach and I put an enormous amount of pressure on everyone on my team. It was a mistake. I should have foreseen the issue, but I had tunnel vision and failed my team.”
“So, going forward, what is the plan? Are you going to reassess your risk management process?”
“I’m certain the company will do that,” Mark says. “I’ve given my thoughts on changes to the process to the co-owners, but I will no longer be privy to those things. After not vetting the bands and rushing my team, I have decided that the best decision for the company is for me to resign from my position.”
I drop my phone as Samuel Ortiz rushes to get Mark to clarify what he said.
It’s a clear tactical move to save the company. Mark has taken the full blame for 2Resonance’s mistakes—our mistake—and he’s giving up ownership of the company, so the company won’t be stained by that blame. The other co-owners will be able to say that poor leadership led to poor decisions and they’ll dust themselves off from this controversy.
But the cost is too high.
This company is everything to Mark. Not only did he pour his time and effort into it, but he saw it as a symbol of his worth. It’s a huge sacrifice for Mark to fall on the sword because he’ll lose his company and it will further tarnish his reputation that he’s been trying to build. It’s everything to him and it’s too late to reverse anything. He can’t take back what he said on live television.
I pick up my phone. Right before I close the screen to LRC’s website, I see Mark’s face. He must appear oddly calm to everyone else, but I can see the stress lining his face. I close the screen and lie back down in my bed.
My job is likely safe now, but it was only important to me as a step to my goal of becoming a creative director. Mark gave up on his greatest ambition and gave in to his greatest fear in order to ensure that everyone else could keep their jobs.
I wouldn’t be able to do that. I can barely take responsibility for my actions in my own thoughts. I can barely admit that I would have found an issue with my relationship with Mark no matter what because it was my own insecurities that kept me from falling in love. I can barely admit that I have loved Mark for all these years and letting him go is a lot worse than losing my job.
I jump out of bed and start getting dressed.
Chapter 16:
