A ripple moves around the table.
“You can’t buy back my sleepless nights. You can’t buy back the humiliation. You can’t buy back the trauma of having an entire school laugh at me. Or the ten inches of hair I had to cut.”
I look directly at each one of them.
“What’s the price of my tears? My trust? My sense of safety?
What’s the going rate for the scars left on my soul?”
Silence.
Heavy.
Thick.
“I’m not taking your blood money,” I say softly. “Respectfully, I just want to finish my year in peace. And when Ifind out who did this to me?” I shrug. “I’ll be pressing criminal charges.”
A few gasps.
One lawyer actually chokes.
Pearl Lady clutches her folder like it’s a shield.
Tristan leans back in his chair and whispers, loud enough for them all to hear:
“Damn, babe. They’re quaking. You can’t be bought.”
He grins wide. “Not even Leo’s mother managed that.”
The board members look at each other with panic blooming in their eyes.
Because they finally realize?—
I’m not scared of them.
I’m not controlled by them.
I’m not for sale.
I stand, smooth my jacket, and walk out while they’re still trying to figure out how everything slipped through their fingers.
“And if you come after me or my scholarship—I’ll scream retaliation and take those NBC and Primetime interviews that so far—I’ve turned down.”
For the first time in a long time…
I feel powerful again.
I’m still shaking when we walk out of the lawyer’s office. Not scared-shaking.
Adrenaline-shaking.
Power-shaking.
The board tried to muzzle me with six figures.
Six.
Figures.
