Chapter 16
After the trial, everything got loud again.
Interviews.
Messages.
Offers.
A cosmetics company wanted me for a campaign called Face of Courage.
I declined so fast Simone laughed.
“You don’t want money?”
“I want to stop being a face people use.”
So I did something else.
With Alexander’s employee fund and Simone’s legal network, I helped create the Ellison Worker Defense Clinic.
My name.
My mother cried when she saw the sign.
“You used our name.”
“It deserves good lighting.”
The clinic helped retail workers, housekeepers, drivers, servers, nannies.
People who were told to smile while being stepped on.
People who were told their jobs depended on silence.
The first woman we helped was a hotel cleaner fired after reporting a guest for assault.
She won back pay and legal protection.
She hugged me so hard I could barely breathe.
I thought of my mother’s words.
Stand happy too.
I tried.
Alexander and I moved slowly.
Very slowly.
He met my mother properly.
He helped Jamie with college applications but only after Jamie demanded to see the scholarship terms.
“No weird rich guy strings,” Jamie said.
Alexander handed him a printed agreement.
Jamie read it seriously.
Then nodded.
“Acceptable.”
For my birthday, Alexander gave me no jewelry.
He gave me a framed copy of my first clinic filing.
I cried.
He panicked.
“Bad gift?”
May you like
“No,” I said, laughing through tears.
“Perfect.”
