Any dreams of a door creaking or bed sheets sliding were forgotten when Isabella's eyes open to the sunlight pouring into the bedroom of the beach house. She hears the sound of waves crashing and it takes her a moment to remember where she is, and why she is waking to the clanging of dishes downstairs. She smiles when she realizes that those sounds come from William Fryer.
She wishes she has more to wear. When they fled Mountain View she was wearing jeans and a white t-shirt with a button-up sweater. She and William made a quick stop to pick up a few things and she grabbed some light culottes and a blouse, but that is all she has. She would love to have something to throw on right now, something loose and thin, maybe short, something that she would wear as she stands by the window and sips the coffee that he has made for her. She wants him to see her that way, wants him to gaze upon her, wants him to see her backlit by the morning light. But she doesn't, so she finds the bathroom, gives her face a quick splash and readies herself for the day. Dressed again in her culottes, she walks downstairs to the kitchen and says, "Good morning, William."
"Hey there!" A cheery response. William has changed into a business-casual navy slacks and a pale shirt, as though he is going somewhere soon. He must have borrowed the clothes from the owner of the beach house, she figures. He looks amazing. "I was wondering if you were going to get up today at all."
Isabella knows it is nearly eleven. Their meeting with the lawyers is at one o'clock, with still a bit of a drive ahead of them. She smiles and takes the cup of coffee that he is offering her and walks to the patio. She sips and lets the warmth slide into her, while she prepares her mind for the day ahead.
She has been living in a dream state, the past day or so, but now it is time to face reality. She will be sitting down with lawyers to determine what her options are. She has the opportunity, she and William figure, to give Angelo the justice that he deserves. When she thinks of his treachery, how he tried to coerce her into sleeping with him, how he used Claude's career as ransom, and how, the son of a bitch, reneged on that part of the deal. Who does he think he is that he can act like that and get away with it? So what if he is the CEO—acting CEO, actually—of a huge corporation; he is not above the law. Today, she will plan her revenge. Angelo will know that he has tried to screw his last victim.
"Here, I made you a fruit salad. There is a great little market nearby. I popped out this morning and picked up a few things. I thought I would cook you dinner tonight. We'll eat in." The thought of her avenging Angelo is quickly replaced by the warming prospect of a romantic dinner with William. She feels her heart beating with excitement.
"You are too kind to me William." She wonders if a kiss would be appropriate here, now, but instead, puts her lips to the mug of coffee.
After a breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and freshly squeezed orange juice, Isabella cleans up while William is outside making a phone call. She hasn't spoken to anyone since the other night at Angelo's, hasn't replied to any messages. She knows people are going to be wondering why she hasn't shown up to work, that Franny will likely have called her parents. She hopes that they are not aware that she is missing. That would be the only problem with this plan, as far as she can see. The lawyers may see other problems.
The offices of Slausen and Crowley Attorneys at Law are bright, clean and professional. There is a smell, Isabella notices, that reminds her of something. Not the hospital smell, but close. She has never been to see a lawyer before and is a little nervous. Even though she has done nothing wrong, there seems to be a foreboding sense of guilt. Maybe that is what she smells.
Fryer and Isabella are sitting next to each other in the waiting room. While William flips through an art magazine, she imagines them as a couple, going to their lawyer to close the deal on their first house, or to prepare a will, or to do one of those big steps in life, steps done together. She knows she is being ridiculous, but these fantasies help keep her from thinking of the true task at hand.
The cadence of dress shoes on the tile floor signals that their meeting is about to begin. A sharply dressed man in his mid-thirties—tall, dark-haired, quite stunning, actually—greets them. They stand.
"Mr. Fryer, Ms. Measures, I'm Jake Slausen." He extends his hand and William lets Isabella shake his hand first.
"Pleased to meet you." Isabella is starting to feel nervous now.
"Happy to meet you. And William, glad to know you. So, you are a friend of Ryan Fielding?"
"Yes, Ryan and I go back a while. Thanks for seeing us."
"Great, this way please." He gestures them towards the hall and into his office.
Once seated at a table, Jake asks Isabella to recount, from the beginning, everything that has happened. He is jotting notes and occasionally asks her to repeat or clarify. A few times he messes his hair, and pats it down again, before continuing to scribble.
"Hmm, this is really interesting," Jake Slausen says after a few moments of silence. "There are a few different ways we can look at this. But tell me first, Isabella, what is it that you want to get out of this?"
"Me? I am not looking to get anything out of this. I have got out of this untouched."
"And while we are all glad that is the case, it does pose a problem when looking at this from either a criminal or a civil point of view. What about Claude? Do you want to see him get his job back?"
"Actually, I don't really care about Claude anymore. That is his problem. No, I want people to know what kind of a creep Angelo is, and that he can't get away with treating women like that."
"And what do you mean, by 'like that'? The physical assaults, or the sexual harassment?"
"Both."
"And, do you want him punished?"
"I want him to regret what he has done, however I can."
Jake flips through his notes, and takes some time to read and reflect. Isabella glances around the meeting room. Framed sketches of pencil and pastel nudes, artistic studies of movement, line and form, tastefully adorn the room. Ironic, she thinks, that here they are discussing a case of sexual abuse, and pictures of naked women, or maybe the same woman, decorate the walls. But these portrayals of skin and curves and shadows don't come across as sexual at all; they are poems, songs, they are hymns of adoration.
He speaks. "Okay then, let me briefly explain how we might look at this. In my field, the civil field, there would be a potential for a lawsuit for damages for sexual harassment, which would have liability for the company and possibly for Mr. Lord. This could be under both California and Federal law, but, based on how Alpha is incorporated, I am almost certain that we would need to be looking at Federal laws here. If you were successful, you would get damages, possibly punitive damages, but we would have to prove that you did in fact suffer a loss as a result. Plus, I imagine, it is reasonable to expect that the man would be fired, unless the sexism that you experienced was ingrained in the cultural fabric of the company, in which case it might open up a different type of liability.
There are two basic bases for liability: quid pro quo and hostile work environment. Because you were essentially forced to sleep with him to avoid your brother losing job, this is quid pro quo. It is rare these days, but does still happen, as you know firsthand. The second base of liability would be if we could establish that there is a hostile work environment. This is where the presence of harassment changes the conditions of employment, such that a reasonable employee would not tolerate working there."
Isabella remembers a lot of this from school, although she hadn't considered it as it related to sexual misconduct before. While it seems clear to her that there is no doubt that what Angelo did constitutes sexual harassment, she is beginning to see that because of their bed trick with Mariana, they might not be able to prove that there were damages. She, after all, did not sleep with him. Sure, she suffered the humiliation of being put in that position, but is that grounds enough for punitive damages? If anything, Claude or Mariana might have more of a case here than she does. This isn't right.
"But, Mr. Slausen, it is clear that Angelo was trading sex for a promise of something, whether I was the one who suffered the loss might be unclear. Is he not still guilty of an offense?"
"Guilt or innocence is a matter of criminal law, not part of a civil suit. I need to tell you that I'm not as familiar with criminal law as I work mainly in civil law here, but certainly it sounds like assault, possibly battery. Assault is a threat of unwanted touching, whereas battery is actual unwanted touching. In addition, there are other things such as possible rape or other sex crimes. Now, you could proceed with both a civil suit and a criminal case. Normally the criminal case goes first because the burden of proof is higher. By that I mean that the D.A. will need to prove, beyond a reasonable doubt, that Angelo committed a crime, let's say sexual assault. It would be up to the D.A. to determine for which crimes they would try to get a conviction. If convicted, the civil case becomes much simpler to prove."
Fryer hasn't said anything the entire time that Jake has been speaking. Either he knows this already, or is not interested, because Isabella does not see much reaction from him. He is listening, however. When he does speak, the question he asks seems to be for Isabella's benefit: "So, what do you think would be the reasonable course of action, Jake?"
"The reasonable course of action for the victim would be to complain to a manager or to file a complaint with human resources and go hire a lawyer, essentially, what you are doing Isabella."
"Am I hiring a lawyer?"
Jake and William look at each other and Fryer breaks a slight smile. "No, you are not Isabella. Not for the time being anyway, and if it comes to that, you don't need to worry about fees."
The attorney continues: "now, a reasonable company would conduct a neutral investigation and determine whether discipline or termination was appropriate for the manager. This would be in their interest as a preemptive strategy to demonstrate that there is not a hostile work environment, as well as to save face publicly."
Isabella considers this. It sounds like the criminal route is the way to go. There are laws against this kind of behavior, and Angelo is certainly guilty of breaking them. It will be easy to prove that Angelo tried to bribe her. There are witnesses: Claude, Fryer, Mariana, there is, apparently, video evidence of Angelo hitting and choking Mariana. She could say that it was her—no she couldn't, that would be lying—still, Mariana could come forward and complain to the DA too. The system would be in their favor.
"Okay, thank you for explaining this Mr. Slausen. I am thinking that we might have a grounds for a criminal case, wouldn't we?"
"One would assume so, but the reality is the chance of conviction in circumstances like this quite low. Let me see if Amelia has a minute to pop in, she has more experience in these matters, mainly because of her work in family law."
Jake Slausen excuses himself, leaves the room and closes the door behind him. There is a minute of silence before Isabella begins to speak, softly, as though she thinks the room might be bugged.
"William, I need to ask you something." She has been wondering about this for a while, ever since he started getting involved with her. "I don't understand why you are doing this for me. It is one thing to function as the H.R. guy and make sure the company is playing by the rules, but it is a whole different thing to get personally involved. If there is an inquiry by Alpha into this, it won't look good on you. Tell me, what is in it for you?"
Fryer looks at Isabella, his blue eyes staring at her intently.
"I get to have dinner with you tonight."