Page 61 of The Aries Alliance
I leaned over my laptop and opened my work email. Within the past few minutes, Elbert forwarded several messages saying that Judy chatted with the media to expose Scarlett. Since Scarlett was a tenured professor, and EFU couldn’t fire her, Judy and Gayle bypassed protocol to embarrass Scarlett and take her down. They had to be the insiders who were part of the president’s intricate plan.
I walked down my hall and stopped outside my bedroom door, deciding what my next move should be. I had to respond to the president, but I also vowed to protect Scarlett. Either way, I would be the bad guy. I texted Skip back.
Me:
What do you want me to do?
President:
Take care of her.
What the hell?
I couldn’t believe this idiot trusted me enough to text me this mess. I could use it to take him down in the future, but that wasn’t the focus now. I needed to make sure Scarlett didn’t end up like my mother. I rushed to the bed and turned on the lamp beside my bed. My hands covered my heart as I took in Scarlett’s peaceful body. I shook her shoulders gently.
“Scarlett. Wake up. I have to tell you something.”
She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them. Her smile quickly disappeared when she saw the frown on my face. She covered my hand with hers and sat up.
“What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
Scarlett’s care pinged my soul.
I squeezed her hand and tried to muster a smile.
“A story is about to hit the news about you. It’s not going to be pretty.”
“Story about what?” Tears filled her eyes as they darted from my face to the wall behind me.
“Judy has the president’s ear. They said you were racist and leaked it to the press.”
“But why me?
“Skip wants brownie points from the governor for his anti-DEI legislation. They think that if they make an example of you, it’ll put Skip in the governor’s good graces and get him reappointed as EFU president. Hell, he might even run for president of the United States.”
Scarlett shook her head.
“I’m not that important.”
“You’re a target because youareimportant. No one else is pushing against the system like you are. If they take you down, they can shut other marginalized people up. It’s a classic move.”
“Yeah. Like how they took Malcolm X and Martin Luther King down. How far do you think they’ll go?”
“I don’t know, sweetheart.”
I didn’t tell Scarlett that Skip was a coward who would do almost anything not to have a negative reputation with the public.
Scarlett stared at me in understandable shock. I pushed her soft shoulders back onto the pillow and massaged them.
“Did I press too hard? Is it because I agreed to your plan? Did you know about this media attack and not tell me?” Scarlett’s words flew out of her mouth faster than I could process her thoughts.
“I told you to be careful.” I tried to keep my defense meter low.
“Did you know they were going to attack me like this?”
I gulped, wanting to be truthful but also prevent Scarlett from blaming me for what was happening.
“Of course not.”
