Marcus said Marsh met with four of the nine board members this week individually. Off the record, I have this from someone inside Whitfield's office who is not happy about what she's seeing. Dennis exhaled. He's not just arguing inappropriate conduct anymore. He's arguing that you deliberately cultivated a relationship with Adriana to influence company decisions for personal gain.
He's got a list, your salary, your title, the fact that you declined two promotions which he's spinning as a strategy to stay below radar while gaining access. He's building a portrait of a man who played a long game. Marcus stood very still. He's also talking about the HR inquiry, Dennis continued. Framing your responses as evasive.
The phrase he's using apparently is deliberate obfuscation. I answered every question truthfully. I know that his audience doesn't care about that. Dennis looked at him. There's one more thing, and this is the part I didn't want to tell you.
Tell me. He found out about the calls. Not the content. I don't think he has the content, but the frequency. He has phone records showing repeated contact between your number and Adriana's personal cell over the past 3 weeks.
11 calls in 19 days. Marcus felt something go cold in his chest. Not fear. Something more precise than fear. The feeling of watching a trap close that was built specifically around things you're not ashamed of and can't explain away without sounding like you're ashamed of them.
How did he get phone records? I don't know. Maybe he didn't. Maybe someone who had access to her phone saw the call history and passed it on. Maybe Marsh has someone inside her assistant's office.
Dennis shook his head. The how doesn't matter right now. The what matters. 11 calls. He's going to stand in front of that board tomorrow and count them out loud.
Marcus put his hand on the roof of his car. Kept his breathing even. Does Adriana know? I called Priya an hour ago. Priya told her.
Dennis paused. I'm told she didn't react, which apparently means she's furious. What do you think I should do? Dennis looked at him for a long moment. The kind of look that contains a lot of things a good friend doesn't want to say.
I think you should consider whether being connected to this fight is worth what it might cost you. Dennis said carefully. You have a daughter. You have a clean record. You have a career that could go anywhere if you wanted it to.
And right now, you are standing in the middle of a corporate war between people who have a hundred times more resources than you do and are not going to be careful about the collateral damage. Marcus listened to all of it. That's not what I asked, he said. I asked what you think I should do. Dennis was quiet.
You think I should walk away? I think walking away keeps you safe. I know. Marcus straightened up. That's not what I'm going to do.
Dennis looked at him. Something moved across his face. Not surprise exactly. More like the expression of a man who knew who his friend was and was both proud of it and worried about it simultaneously. Then you better be ready for tomorrow.
Dennis said, "I've been ready." Adriana called at 9:15 that night. Her voice was controlled in the specific way it got controlled when she was running everything through a very fine filter before it left her mouth. He recognized it now. The slightly longer spaces between sentences, the deliberate word choices, the sense of a person managing themselves in real time. I know about what Marsh has, she said.
I know you know. Dennis told me he called Priya. 11 calls Marcus. Yeah, he's going to make them sound like. I know what he's going to make them sound like.
Silence for a moment. I've been thinking, she said, about the right way to handle tomorrow. He waited. If I go into that room and fight for you, if I stand up and defend the nature of our relationship and what those calls were, she paused. It validates the premise that there's something that needs defending.
It makes the relationship itself the story and the relationship is private. It belongs to us. I don't want to put it on a table in front of nine board members and let Kevin Marsh poke at it. Okay. But if I don't address it, then the silence reads as confirmation.
I know. Another pause. I've been trying to find the version of this where you don't get hurt. Adriana. I'm serious.
I've been going through every angle for 3 hours and every one of them has a version where what happens tomorrow damages your reputation or your position or your Adriana. His voice was gentle but it stopped her. I'm a grown man. What happens to my reputation is mine to handle. That's not your job.
It is my job when I'm the reason. No. He was firm, quiet, and firm. You are not responsible for other people deciding to lie about who I am. That's on them.
You didn't put me in this position. They did. She was silent. What do you need from me tomorrow? He asked.
Not what protects me. What do you need? A long pause. I need you to trust me, she finally said. I need you to let me walk into that room and handle it the way I know how to handle it.
And I need you to know that whatever I say in there, whatever I have to say, whatever form it takes, it's not the whole truth. The whole truth is ours. I understood what she was saying. She was going to fight on her terms in her language in the arena she'd built herself. And she was telling him that the Marcus in that room, the one they'd reduced to a phone record and an allegation, wasn't who he actually was.
She knew who he actually was and she was asking him to trust her to carry that knowledge incorrectly, even if what came out of her mouth tomorrow had to be smaller and more careful than the real thing. I trust you, he said. He heard her exhale. The long slow exhale of someone who has been holding their breath for hours. How's Zoe?