THE EMERGENCY MANAGEMENTmeeting that afternoon included Oliver, Heather, Jack, Coach Vicky, Stephanie from PR, and various department heads who needed to understand the scope of Travis's betrayal. Oliver sat beside Heather, their chairs carefully separated by professional distance even though everyone in the room knew they'd been working together.
"We need to control the media narrative," Stephanie was saying. "If this gets out wrong, it looks like we had a massive security failure."
"We did have a massive security failure," Vicky said bluntly. "A senior administrator was systematically sabotaging this organization for months."
"Which is why we need to frame it as a victory," Jack countered. "We caught him. We stopped him. The system worked."
"The system failed," Vicky shot back. "Travis had access to everything because the system trusted him implicitly."
"Are you suggesting we air our dirty laundry to every sports reporter in the country?"
"I'm suggesting we tell the truth instead of spinning it into something prettier than it was."
The tension between them crackled across the conference table. Oliver caught Heather's eye, both of them recognizing the charged dynamic that had nothing to do with media strategy.
"The truth," Jack said slowly, "is that we identified a threat and eliminated it. That's the story."
"The truth is that you ignored my concerns about Travis for months because you trusted him more than you trusted me."
Silence fell over the room. The other department heads suddenly found their phones fascinating.
"You're right," Jack said. "I should have listened when you raised concerns about certain administrative decisions. I choseestablished relationships over new perspectives. That was my failure."
Vicky's expression softened slightly. "We all made mistakes. What matters is that we caught him before he could do permanent damage."
"Thanks to Heather and Oliver," Jack added, gesturing toward them. "Which brings me to another issue we need to address."
The conference room door opened before he could continue. Ivy Hodges from HR entered, her face set in lines of barely controlled fury.
"Mr. Westlake, I need to speak with you about the blatant violation of HR policies."
"Perfect timing, Ivy," Jack interrupted. "I was just about to discuss those policies."
Ivy's gaze locked onto Oliver and Heather sitting beside each other. "These two deliberately defied explicit instructions about maintaining professional distance. They've been conducting unauthorized investigations, meeting privately, clearly involved in a personal relationship that violates—"
"That exposed a massive conspiracy and saved this organization," Jack finished. "Your policies, Ivy, actually helped Travis by keeping our best investigators from working together effectively."
"My policies exist to protect this organization from lawsuits and scandals."
"Your policies exist because Dmitri Volkov turned down your dinner invitation," Vicky said.
The room went absolutely still. Ivy's face flushed deep red.
"That's completely inappropriate and untrue."
"Is it?" Jack's voice was dangerously calm. "Because I've had multiple complaints about your policies seeming personally motivated. And now I find out those same policies prevented twopeople from stopping someone who was actively destroying us from within."
"The anti-fraternization policy is standard in professional organizations."
"Then it needs to be re-evaluated. Effective immediately, the blanket prohibition on relationships between players and staff is lifted. We'll implement a disclosure requirement and conflict of interest protocols, but we're not going to pretend that adults can't make their own decisions about their personal lives."
Ivy's jaw worked soundlessly for a moment. "This is a mistake. When this blows up, when someone claims harassment or favoritism—"
"Then we'll handle it like adults running a professional organization," Jack said. "The policy changes, Ivy. You can either implement those changes or I can find someone who will."
Oliver watched Ivy calculate her options. Resignation would mean starting over somewhere else. Staying meant swallowing her pride but keeping her position and whatever power came with it.
"I'll draft the new guidelines," she said through clenched teeth. "But I want it on record that I object to this decision."