One sentence.
She could have said:
I’m your CEO.
She almost did.
Then she remembered the complaint:
People laugh because if you don’t laugh she notices.
She wanted to know what came next.
Maybe that was ego.
Maybe evidence.
Maybe both.
“I’m asking how assignments are decided.”
Linda laughed.
Then pulled the janitorial cart toward Naomi.
“Temps who question me scrub toilets.”
There it was.
Exactly.
Not allegation.
Not interpretation.
A sentence.
Naomi said:
“You’re certain this is how you treat temporary staff?”
Linda shoved the cart.
The wheel hit Naomi’s sneaker.
“Get moving.”
She grabbed a toilet brush from cart and threw it into Naomi’s bucket.
The plastic crack echoed.
Then:
“You’re replaceable. I decide who gets paid here.”
And the door opened.
Malcolm Hayes stepped inside.
Everything changed.
Now, standing in the break room with payroll folder in her hands, Naomi wished it had not.
Not because she wanted to remain humiliated.
Because the transformation proved something.
Linda’s posture changed.
Her voice changed.
Her face changed.
The exact second power became visible, respect appeared.
Naomi hated that more than the brush.
Malcolm looked around.
His eyes settled on Linda.
Then Mrs. Hall.
Then employees.
“What happened?”
Naomi closed folder.
“Everyone is still on the clock?”
Nobody answered.
She looked at Kiara.
“Are you?”
Kiara swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Naomi turned to Malcolm.
“Call Sarah.”
“Already texting.”
“Aaron.”
“Yes.”
“Security?”
Malcolm glanced at Linda.
Naomi shook head.
“No security unless safety issue.”
“Understood.”
Linda finally found her voice.
“Ms. Carter, I didn’t know—”
Naomi looked at her.
“That sentence will not help.”
Linda went pale.
“I mean I would never—”
“Stop.”
Naomi’s voice remained calm.
“If your defense begins with not knowing I was CEO, you are explaining the problem.”
The employees watched.
Naomi hated that this was happening publicly.
But Linda had made the humiliation public.
The correction could not completely hide.
Still, she did not want spectacle.
She looked at everyone else.
“Finish your paid shift.”
“Nobody is required to discuss what happened right now.”
“HR will arrange confidential interviews.”
“No supervisor is to alter timecards from this point forward without corporate payroll review.”
Malcolm nodded.
Linda said:
“Naomi—”
“Ms. Carter.”
The correction was deliberate.