Chapter 8 - MONICA PUT HER OWN JOB AT RISK
Monica requested a meeting with Pacific Crest’s chief compliance officer.
Linda tried to reassure her.
“You’re not under investigation for Austin’s conduct.”
“I should be reviewed anyway.”
“Why?”
“Because he asked me about approval thresholds.”
“You disclosed that voluntarily.”
“And my mother used her foundation position to introduce him.”
“That isn’t your action.”
Monica shook her head.
“I need this clean.”
The request carried a cost.
An independent reviewer examined Monica’s emails, assigned vendor cases, conflict disclosures, and whether she had ever handled Coastal Clinical Interiors transactions.
For eight working days, Monica had no access to vendor-integrity systems.
Her colleagues knew enough to understand something serious was happening.
Rumors moved.
Monica hated it.
She had spent six years building a reputation for being exact.
Now her surname appeared inside the investigation.
Caroline asked why she volunteered.
“Because if I’m going to say my family hid conflicts, I don’t get to exempt myself from scrutiny because I think I’m innocent.”
The review found Monica had never approved Coastal invoices.
She had once received a system-generated exception report containing the company name but the case was reassigned before she reviewed it because she was on medical leave after a minor car accident.
That coincidence bothered Monica until Linda corrected her.
“Not every missed clue is negligence.”
Monica nodded.
She was learning the difference between responsibility and omniscience.
At the same time, she made another irreversible decision.
She pressed forward with the assault case.
Austin’s attorney offered through the prosecutor to discuss a resolution.
Austin would acknowledge striking the pot and injuring Monica’s knee during the confrontation but wanted the event characterized as a fight that escalated after Monica “provoked family tensions.”
Monica refused to endorse that description.
The case did not instantly go to trial.
Negotiations continued.
The physical evidence favored Monica.
The damaged pot.
Her knee injury.
The neighbor’s contemporaneous statement.
Amanda’s unreliable account complicated rather than erased it.
Then Austin violated the boundary without contacting Monica directly.
He called Caroline.
“You caused this by listening to her.”
Caroline hung up.
Austin called again.
“She doesn’t care what happens to anyone.”
Caroline recorded nothing.
She did something more useful.
She wrote down the time and exact words immediately afterward and gave the information to the prosecutor when asked.
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Austin was still trying to make women carry his explanation.
The difference now was that fewer of them were accepting it.
