Michael did not sleep.
He sat in the living room of his residence with the lights still on and three screens running without sound. One screen carried Nadia Bellamy's name across the lower banner again and again. Another showed MM Label's parent stock still falling in after-hours analysis. The last one had a legal memo open, but he had stopped reading it an hour earlier.
The words were not the problem anymore.
The problem was the way people were saying them.
Nadia Bellamy.
Coercion.
Sexual harassment.
Independent investigation.
Michael had seen bad headlines before. He had been named in lawsuits that disappeared, industry rumors that died before lunchtime, and stories that were softened after one phone call. This was different. The language was not bending. The outlets were not waiting for permission. Even the people around him had started speaking as if they were allowed to disagree.
That bothered him more than the reporters.
