He Sat Me by the Warming Racks, So I Pulled the Funding novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: The Contract Meeting

'I brought them here to watch their jobs disappear,' Curtis told my employees. 'Maureen wanted witnesses.'

The employees turned toward me.

Some still wore their work badges. One held a paper cup with the lid bent inward.

They had heard his version first.

My hands shook. I stopped before I answered.

Bev stepped beside me.

'Curtis threatened our next hospital billing contract at the church luncheon,' she said. 'He said he planned to take it.'

The cup lowered in the employee's hand.

I hated that Curtis had made them wonder whether I had put their paychecks at risk.

'I brought you here because he put your jobs into that threat,' I said. 'I want him to answer for it in front of you.'

A man near the wall rubbed his thumb across his badge.

He had worked with us since our first hospital account. I knew he would rather be at his desk.

'You could have told us that before we came,' he said.

'I could have,' I said. 'You still deserved to hear Curtis answer.'

Curtis adjusted the papers in his hand.

'I discussed what might happen to the contract,' he said. 'That is not the same as threatening anyone's employment.'

Curtis's title as a hospital physician helped him make the distinction sound reasonable.

I wanted to repeat the words he had used at the luncheon. I wanted the room to hear them again.

The employees had heard enough from me. The chair needed to hear what their jobs meant.

'Forty people depend on my firm for their paychecks,' I said. 'They should not have to guess whether a hospital physician can put those jobs at risk.'

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