“Do you want to know your match percentage with her?”
“No!”
They sat in silence for a moment, until Samson cracked. “Is it over ninety?” He shook his head when Belle nodded and moved her thumb upward. “No, I don’t want to know.”
“Suit yourself. But rest assured, dear. You should call her. It’s a good match.” She slapped her thigh. “Should we think about what to have for dinner? I—” She frowned when her phone rang, and she dug it out of the pack slung around her hips. She plucked her reading glasses from where they were hooked in the front of her overalls and peered at the screen. When she gasped, Samson reached across the bed to touch her arm. “What’s wrong?”
Worry was written all over her face. “The woman I talked to, the one who told me Peter harassed her. She went to the press.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
RHIANNON SAT in Helena’s green room and watched the news broadcast on television. The breaking-news banner, combined with Peter’s name, had prompted her to turn the volume up. She listened in increasing disbelief, then accessed the article in the national newspaper that the broadcaster had referenced and read it on her phone.
There it was, in black and white. Three women and one man, accusing the CEO of Swype of sexual harassment and misconduct. Two women had permitted their names to be used.
Some of the accusations were similar to what Rhiannon had experienced, some were far worse than she could have ever imagined. Peter, demanding sexual favors for continued employment. Locking his office door to ensure the victims had no way out, physically. Threatening to blacklist them if they didn’t comply.
Her eyes went back to a quote in the middle of the long report. I should have known better, because I was there when he bullied his former girlfriend out of the business. Everyone saw it. We all felt so bad for her. She was an executive, with some power. Why did I think he’d treat me any differently? I was nobody compared to her.
Rhiannon covered her mouth with her hand and scrolled back down to the end. Why come forward now? The reporter had asked one of the victims. I would have never said anything, but I guess Swype was looking to buy another company, and the owner of that company called me. It brought up all these old memories, and I couldn’t bear to live with them anymore in silence.
She looked up when the door to the green room opened and Helena Knight walked in, somber. They’d greeted each other an hour ago, when Rhiannon had arrived at the Manhattan studio. Helena had delivered the news that Samson had canceled at the last minute. Rhiannon had been relieved.
She didn’t feel relieved now.
“Darling, did you see the news?”
“I did.”
“Would you like to get your publicist on the phone?” Helena asked gently. “Because you know I’ll have to ask you about it. You worked for Peter.”
Rhiannon shook her head. Her phone was vibrating in her pocket, probably Suzie or Lakshmi, but she couldn’t deal with that now. She didn’t need them for this. “I understand. No need for anyone else. Let’s talk.”
HELENA PUT RHIANNON at ease first and gave her a chance to discuss Crush and build a rapport with the audience. Then she turned to the topic on everyone’s mind. “Today a story broke accusing the CEO of Swype, Peter Roberts, of multiple counts of sexual harassment and in one case, at least, assault.” Helena gestured to Rhiannon. “Everyone who knows Crush knows Swype. You two are the largest players in the app-dating business. You also used to work for Swype. Do you have any comment on the story?”
Rhiannon opened her mouth. The silence stretched, and out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the producer taking a step forward.
Her gaze fell on the first row, the people watching her intently. All in their twenties and thirties.
Oddly enough, a snippet of what she’d said to Samson as they stood in his home, surrounded by his memories, came to mind. You made your industry better for the young men who came after you, and the older men who came before you.
Helena cleared her throat and Rhi snapped out of it. Live television. No time to fuck around.
It was my decision to tell someone about this.
Never again.
She clasped her hands in front of her on the table. “I saw the story. I believe those who came forward.”
“Across the board, no hesitation?”
“No hesitation. In general, I believe survivors. And when I say that, I don’t mean to say I blindly believe them or that I blindly believe the alleged perpetrator guilty. But the societal impulse is to disbelieve survivors, and we don’t really do that when it comes to any other misconduct. When someone claims they’ve been mugged, we don’t treat them with skepticism. We believe them. We investigate, but we believe them.”
Helena nodded. “And in this particular situation?”
“In this particular situation . . .” Rhi licked her lips and reached for her most coldly dispassionate tone. She might be speaking from the heart here, but she needed to sound like she was doing nothing more than reciting facts and figures. “I believe the survivors because I have personal experience. I was involved in a relationship with Peter. It wasn’t a secret. I ended things. Peter decided Swype wasn’t big enough for the both of us and harassed me out. He spread rumors. He made my life there so miserable, I begged to leave.” Her hands curled into fists. “I hated begging most of all. He knew that.”
Helena took a sip of water, and Rhiannon could practically see her brain racing. They hadn’t gone into this much detail in the green room, but Helena was a good journalist. The cameras were rolling, and a juicy follow-up to a sensational story had landed in her lap. “This isn’t common knowledge.”
“One of the survivors in the newspaper article, she mentioned having been employed when Peter harassed an executive. That was probably me. Most likely me. I didn’t think anyone noticed, at the time. The rumors he spread about me are still prevalent. I still meet people in the industry today, who, despite my accomplishments, believe that I’m dumb and lazy and a gold digger.” She thought about William. An executive of a well-respected company who had viewed her with contempt. “My reputation was solid gold before I dated that man. And then after I left . . . I was radioactive.”
“Did you take money to leave the company?”
“I need to talk to my lawyer about what I can and can’t say about my separation agreement.” She smiled faintly. “I would have been far better off financially staying at Swype than I was leaving it, if that’s what you’re asking. I received no financial benefit from quitting.”
Helena crossed and uncrossed her legs. “Why didn’t you sue him when he started harassing you? You also held a position of some power.”
Rhi’s defensiveness kicked in, but then she caught the encouraging, empathetic look on Helena’s face. The woman was giving her the chance to get the jump on those who would rip her story, and her, apart limb from limb.
The magnitude of what she was doing, unplanned, unrehearsed, with no warning to anyone, not even the people of her own company, made her want to throw up.
Too late. You couldn’t stuff a cat back into a bag. Well, you could, but there would be blood.
Anyway, she wasn’t a company or a brand at the end of the day. She was a person.