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FAULTLINES

Author: Grace Pearl
last update Last Updated: 2025-08-01 21:19:15

POV: VIVIAN HALE

I hate corporate politics. I hate meetings where people say a lot without saying anything. I hate that I have to fake-smile at men who think they built this company, when every inch of it is Kaia’s blood. But today? Today I hate something else more.

I hate liars who look you in the face and call it loyalty.

I’ve been working the same angle all week. Subtle check-ins, late-night phone calls masked as “compliance questions,” the kind of fake-casual probing that makes even seasoned execs sweat behind their teeth-whitened smiles. Kaia didn’t want a witch hunt—just the truth. But truth doesn’t come clean in places like this. It comes soaked in layers.

And tonight, sitting at my desk at the edge of midnight, I think I’ve peeled back enough.

I hit send on the last email. I stare at the list I’ve compiled. Only one name is circled in red.

I say it out loud, just to hear how it lands.

“Reed.”

“Kaia,” I say the second I walk into her office, even though the lights are low and s
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