Page 8 of True Colors

Erin smirks. “You can play the supportive boss until you’re ready to restructure her out. A performance issue. A communication gap. Something HR won’t go into a tizzy about.”

Is she saying that I have to fire Anouk?

Why?

If Anouk’s good at what she does, do we need to get her out of the company?

I want to correct her, push back, but I don’t.

“Fine,” I submit and watch her leave my office.

I trust Erin. She’s spent more time at HelixSphere than I have, and she knows the players. If she believes that Anouk Starling doesn’t have a place in the organization, then it behooves me to listen to her.

But it doesn’t sit well with me. In fact, I come away knowing I behaved like an asshole, because Anouk’s haunted expression keeps replaying in my mind—the way she folded inward when I snapped at her.

I can’t stop thinking about what Dot said.

See the work. Not the panic.

Diversity is also neurological.

Think about the kind of leader you want to be.

I want to shove the thoughts aside, but they don’t budge—maybe because my father and mother say similar things.

I’ve worked my ass off to prep for this role—the rotations, the leadership courses, the shadowing, the eighty-hour weeks, the endless feedback loops with my father’s board—and I walked into that conference room believing I was leading, showing strength.

But now there’s this knot in my chest I can’t ignore, an itch under my ribs because the truth is right there, simmering for me to face.

Today, I didn’t lead in that conference room.

I bulldozed.

I didn’t challenge Anouk—I made her nervous.

I didn’t empower my team. I made half of them shrink and the other half smirk.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

She has a stutter, and I didn’t even bother to learn that.

I just walked all over her.

I thought decisiveness would inspire confidence in a new CEO. But here I am—expensive office, expensive education, expensive watch—fully aware that I’ve screwed up.

I was so busy showing off that I was ready to be a CEO that I misread the room and Anouk Starling, who, according to Dot, is the best analyst there is.

So, yeah, I’ll have her work on the Novagene project.

I’ll give her a chance.

I hope I won’t regret it.

I call Dot and tell her what I’ve decided, and ignore how smug she sounds when I do.

CHAPTER 3

Anouk