Axelle wasn’t happy.
Not.
At.
All.
“You’re crossing a line.”
Elizabeth didn’t pull this card often, but if her team was being berated by Axelle, she’d protect them. They worked damn hard, and they deserved to be safe at work.
They weren’t safe in the streets.
They deserved to be safe in the office.
This wasn’t safe.
“I’ll cross a bigger line where I take this toBOTHof our bosses. Don’t make me pull rank, Axelle. If your personal life is in turmoil, that’s an‘outside of the office’issue—not an‘inside the office’problem.”
She gasped.
Elizabeth stopped her.
“You said that to me once, and put me in check. I’m giving you the same chance to adjust. It’s hard enough for women to have these positions. Don’t make people complain about us being too emotional, and out of control. That validates what men think about us. My team isOFFlimits. What you choose to dowith your teams, and your staff, is your business. You once told me we aren’t related in the office, and you would be doing me a disservice for not calling me out to save my job. Consider this your call out of me saving your job from an HR intervention.”
There was silence.
The whole time, Ethan held his breath.
Then, Axelle went there.
“Message received.”
Elizabeth hated to make the void bigger between them, but she couldn’t let Axelle use her team as a punching bag.
That wasn’t happening.
She hoped someone would stop her if she was behaving that way. She’d been called out before, and in hindsight, she was grateful.
Axelle might not be happy now, but one day, she would be.
“I’ll get you the report on this case as I work it. I’ll be out of the office,” Elizabeth stated.
Axelle said very little.
“Thank you.”
Then, the call went dead.
When Elizabeth hung up, she sighed.
“Oh, I love my job. Work with your sister-in-law, everyone said, it will be so much fun, they said. It’s not fun, EJ. It’s not fun at all.”
Ethan knew that feeling.
It was why he ran the second he could. He’d been in her position, and it had sucked.
Big-time.
