Chapter 6 - WHY SIENNA NEEDED THE JOBSienna had been accepted to nursing school once.
She rarely told anyone.
At twenty-one, she completed two semesters.
Then her mother lost her job.
Rent rose.
Her younger brother started community college.
Sienna took one semester off.
Then another.
Eventually “temporary” became five years.
She worked restaurants.
Coffee shops.
Event catering.
Anywhere tips could make an hourly wage survivable.
When people heard the story after the viral video, they tried to make it inspirational.
NURSING STUDENT SAVES CEO
That headline was wrong.
She was not a nursing student.
She had been one.
There was a difference.
A morning show producer asked whether Grant planned to pay for Sienna’s education.
Sienna declined the interview.
The implication annoyed her.
A rich man’s life had been saved.
Therefore perhaps the poor woman should be rewarded.
As if ordinary workers deserved opportunity only after performing miracles for wealthy people.
Grant understood when she explained it.
“I was going to offer.”
Sienna stared at him.
“What?”
“To cover school.”
“Of course you were.”
“I thought it was a nice idea.”
“It is.”
“You sound offended.”
“Because I don’t want my life to become a fairy tale about a billionaire rewarding the waitress.”
Grant winced.
“First, I hate that word.”
“Billionaire?”
“Yes.”
“Is it inaccurate?”
“No.”
“Then you’ll survive.”
He laughed.
Sienna continued.
“Second, if you want to help workers go to school, make tuition assistance a program.”
Grant stopped.
“Not just me.”
“Yes.”
“You’re very expensive.”
“What?”
“Every conversation with you becomes a new corporate budget.”
Sienna smiled.
“Maybe stop calling.”
He did not.
The friendship developing between them was strange.
No romance.
No flirtation.
Grant was eighteen years older.
He had a daughter in college.
Sienna treated him like a man who happened to control enormous amounts of money and still forgot to eat lunch.
Grant treated her like someone who refused to be impressed by facts that impressed everyone else.
That was rare in his life.
The café remained closed for two additional days.
Workers were paid.
Tip restitution calculations began.
Derek’s suspension continued.
Then the first major retaliation surfaced.
Tessa Green received a call from an unfamiliar café chain.
A job she applied for months earlier suddenly rejected her.
The recruiter accidentally forwarded an internal note.
Reference flagged for integrity concerns by current management.
Tessa showed Sienna.
Sienna sent it to Eliza.
Derek had been privately blacklisting workers.
Further review found four former employees who reported similar experiences.
One had complained about tips.
Another about harassment.
A third about off-clock work.
Each later struggled to get café jobs nearby.
Derek denied giving negative references beyond confirming employment.
Phone records said otherwise.
He had called two hiring managers personally.
“He wanted people scared to leave,” Priya said.
Sienna understood.
A bad manager needed labor.
An abusive manager needed trapped labor.
Then Maya showed Sienna something online.
A new anonymous account was posting about her.
Ask Sienna Brooks why she has been fired from three service jobs.
Sienna frowned.
“I haven’t.”
She had left two.
Was laid off from one when a restaurant closed.
Another post:
Ask why she dropped out of nursing school.
Another:
Maybe Grant Mercer should check who he’s making a hero.
Maya looked at her.
“Someone has your employment history.”
Sienna felt cold.
The personnel-file leak.
Again.
Eliza launched another internal review.
Grant became furious.
Someone inside the organization was trying to discredit Sienna.
Not because she asked for fame.
Because she talked.
That pattern was familiar now.
Worker complains.
Worker becomes the problem.
The same logic that allowed people to film Grant before helping him.
Judgment was easier than responsibility.
A week later, the anonymous account posted a photograph of Sienna’s father in a hospital bed.
She had shared it years earlier on a private social media account.
Caption:
Funny how every story in her life seems to involve being a victim.
Sienna stared.
Then closed the app.
Maya swore.
“Who does that?”
Sienna knew.
Someone who wanted her angry.
Someone who wanted her to respond badly.
Grant called.
She did not answer.
He called again.
No.
Eliza texted.
We’re tracing the leak. Please don’t engage publicly.
Sienna threw the phone onto the sofa.
There it was.
Please don’t engage.
Stay calm.
Let professionals handle it.
She had heard versions of that her entire working life.
Then Priya called.
“You need to see the employee group chat.”
Sienna opened it.
Derek had messaged several former staff from a private number.
Corporate is using Sienna to blame management for problems she created. Be careful what you tell investigators.
Then:
When this blows over, remember who still decides who gets rehired.
Sienna read the sentence twice.
May you like
He thought he was coming back.
And apparently Derek believed someone above him had promised exactly that.
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