I didn’t blame her. This scenario was ridiculous. Mylifewas ridiculous.
“What do you want?” I asked, not bothering to move the phone from my cheek.
“Get off the phone and we’ll discuss you coming back to work for me,” Jeremy demanded.
“Hana?” Paxton asked. “Are you somewhere safe? I need to know that slimy worm isn’t going to threaten you or hurt you.”
“I’m okay,” I said. I would have smiled at the worry in Pax’s voice, but I was too busy studying Jeremy. I’d looked up to this man, considered him a mentor, my savior. I’d been considering a relationship with him.
But he’d used me. He’d turned my fears against me so I’d come to work for him. I saw that now—how I’d confided in him about my worries over finishing my last three courses and completing my degree, about finding a job that would cover my much-higher-than-expected expenses.
He’d used those fears to tie me to his company—to him, smug in the fact that I was thankful enough not to consider my other options too deeply. Options, I saw now, that he’d hidden from me.
Every time one of his colleagues had tried to talk to me about a potential position, Jeremy had swooped in and steered me away. The only time that hadn’t worked was with one of Jeremy’s investors—Gunnar something-or-other. He was a billionaire or gazillionaire who dabbled in petroleum, aeronautics…who knew what else.
We’d enjoyed chatting about the hinges and solar-based mechanisms designed for space before Jeremy had attempted to whisk me away. Gunnar had simply raised a thick, sandy eyebrow and said in that clipped, deep voice, “We were talking.”
Jeremy had smiled ingratiatingly and said, “Of course, of course! But Hana gets tired—from her accident. I was concerned she needed a break. You do, don’t you?”
And fool that I was, I’d let him lead me away, to a corner, tucked out of sight from Gunnar and the rest of the career-altering opportunities.
Now, though, after talking to Paxton and reconsidering my interactions with Jeremy from this new perspective, after dealing with the fallout he was willing to wreak to get his way, I realized something important: Jeremy wasn’t a man. Hewasused to getting his way, which made him a man-child. That was the key to his personality; he acted entitled and got vindictive when he didn’t get what he wanted. He had the worst qualities of personhood, and he held sway over many.
I wanted nothing to do with him and nothing to do with his world. If I didn’t take this moment, make this stand, I’d be sucked back into the status quo and drown in disappointment and bitterness.
“Han?” Paxton’s voice washed over me through the phone. “You there? You okay?”
“I’m here, and I’m okay. Hang on a sec.” I held the phone in my hand but didn’t disconnect it.
Jeremy fidgeted, clearly less sure of himself since I hadn’t caved to his demands.
“I’m not coming back to work for you,” I said.
“You need me—” he began.
“No. Actually, you needme. And instead of treating me with respect like you would a different colleague, you threatened me and tried to coerce me into basically an indentured servitude.”
“I pay—paid you well!”
“You paid me okay, not enough to get ahead with my loans. Not enough to move into a better place. That was intentional—yet another way to manipulate me. But guess what? Other companies can andwillpay me better.”
I didn’t know who those people were yet, but they were out there. Like that mysterious Gunnar. Darn! I wished I’d talked to him longer, gotten his name…knew what company he worked for. I’d have to scour the internet.
Jeremy scowled, much like a child who’d broken his favorite toy. I hated that I was the plaything in the analogy.I won’t be again, I promised myself. “I have a network outside of you,” I told him. “From my undergraduateandgraduate program.”
I’d finished my master’s degree a few months ago, taking advantage of an accelerated program for full-time employees. The hours had been insane, but I’d persevered, driven to complete the advanced degree so I wouldn’t remain beholden to Jeremy forever.
“These are people who know me and also know you.” I let that linger. Jeremy might instill fear in his underlings, and even his colleagues in the Bay Area, but the country was large, and he had as many detractors as admirers, as I’d learned in grad school.
“You can yell and scream and belittle me all you want, but my record with your company as well as my record throughout my years at MIT speak well—and for themselves. You don’t control me, and withoutme, you wouldn’t have gotten as far as you have with the prototype. We both know you sabotaged the simulation, Jeremy. It won’t be hard to prove that, either, considering I wasn’t at my computer the entirety of the day.”
“You’d leave your colleagues in a lurch? Now? When we’re trying to secure such important funding?—”
“Youfired me, Jeremy. Explain that to your angel investors and your venture capitalists. You get to keep the prototype, of course, but it’s all data that I understand how to replicate.Me, not you.”
“That’s not fair?—”
“Do not speak to me about fairness, Jeremy. Nothing about the last few years of my life has been fair, and I’m not interested in your wheedling. We have nothing more to discuss. Now leave me alone.” I dismissed him and put the phone back to my mouth. “Are you still there?” I asked.
