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She smiles. “Consider me prepared. We’re absolutely going ice-skating at least once.” Her smile morphs into a grin. “I want to see you fall on your ass.”
“I never fall on my ass.”
Max pulls the car into my garage as Adaline rolls her eyes. “How boring.”
I grab all the bags of gifts we accumulated once the car is parked. I’m following Adeline to the elevator when Hudson calls. “I’ll be up soon,” I tell her.
“What’s up?” I answer the phone as the elevator slides closed with Adeline in it.
“Adeline’s got a problem and it’s not a small one. I’m just calling to find out where you two are so I can come to you and detail it.”
“We’re at home. What’s the problem?” Hudson is one of the calmest, most logical, rational people I know. If he says she’s got a problem that’s not a small one, she’s got a fucking problem.
“One of the factories she uses to manufacture her clothes in Asia is a sweatshop that uses child labor. The workers are also forced to work in unsafe conditions.”
Adeline’s brand regularly promotes the fact they don’t use sweatshops. She’s built her company on that promise.
Hudson continues, “This isn’t one of her main factories. The work was subcontracted out through a supplier that couldn’t meet demand. I’m not sure she’s aware of this.” He pauses. “I’ll be at your place in about forty minutes. I’ll email the information through so she can go through it before I get there.”
18
Adeline
“Iwasn’t aware we were using that factory,” I say to Hudson after he runs through the information he emailed when Jameson and I returned from shopping. I could vomit. And not just because this is bad for my company, but because this is humanity at its worst and I do everything in my power to ensure my company and myself are never involved in hurting fellow humans.
He nods. “I figured as much.”
I reach for my phone, ready to call my team in on this.
“This isn’t public knowledge,” he says.
“No, but it won’t take long for that to happen,” I say.
“If you can get ahead of it, you might be able to stop that from happening,” he says.
If there’s one thing I’ve stood firm on from the day I went into business, it’s been my integrity. I’ve always vowed honesty and transparency. I’m not about to stop now.
I shake my head. “No, I’m not getting ahead of it. I’m taking charge of it.”
“How?” he asks.
“I’ll pull our work from that factory immediately and release a statement regarding it.”
Jameson steps in. “That could potentially wipe billions from your value.”
I look at him. “I’m aware.”
He doesn’t say anything further, which I appreciate; my mind is made up.
I call Douglas and Kimberly, my COO, and fifteen minutes later, the three of us Zoom.
Kimberly agrees with me on my plan of attack. Douglas crunches numbers and comes back with his analysis that we can weather a storm if it eventuates. We then work through the afternoon and into the night reviewing our supply chain. After hours of digging into this, pulling our team in to help, we identify issues we didn’t know we had, including the unapproved subcontracting of work. Just before 10:00 p.m., we finish work, ready with our plan for tomorrow.
I step out of my office, mentally drained and physically exhausted, and go in search of food. Jeff offered me dinner earlier, but I didn’t want to stop to eat. Now, I’m starving.
Jameson is in the kitchen when I get there. “I was about to come looking for you,” he says. “Are you hungry?”
I nod as I run my fingers through my hair, brushing it off my face.
