“A Negro! A Negro agitator. And to think, this boy is Clarence’s nephew!”

“Oh god, Leon! He’s not a boy, and Clarence has nothing to do with it.” The thought suddenly struck me. “You’re not going to fire Clarence, are you? It was all my fault. Clarence didn’t even know,” I lied without blinking, and went on lying. “Clarence never guessed.”

Leon paused and frowned. “That’s what he said too.”

“He’s telling you the truth. It was all my fault.”

“And aren’t you ashamed?”

“No.”

“You ought to be. You always act like the rules don’t apply to you!”

“And who taught me that, Leon?”

His lip curled. “Don’t blame me for your filthy actions! Your dirty sex secrets. My own granddaughter, sleeping with a radical Negro! Who writes for a radical paper, allied with the NAACP. The Reds are at the root of the NAACP, and—”

“You know nothing about the NAACP, and nothing about the Challenger, and absolutely nothing about Terrence Dexter, who is a good man, the best man I’ve ever known, the only man I’ve ever known who—”

“You have flouted the laws of nature and society—you have tainted Empire Pictures with your disgusting sexual antics.” Leon paced the library while I sat depleted and immobile listening to him rant for half an hour about the horrors of miscegenation, and how the NAACP roiled up race relations, aided by the Reds, about how I was no better than that slut Diana Jordan, never mind every advantage, every opportunity he had given me, including the house that I lived in and the office that I used. Oh, everything he had made possible rolled by like the opening credits with the theme of The High and the Mighty blaring over it. I sat through it all until he said that I had repaid him with malicious stupidity. That’s when I stopped him.

“It wasn’t malicious stupidity. I loved Terrence Dexter. I still love him, but he has left me, he’s gone, and no one will tell me where or let me talk to him.” I started to cry, and dug in my purse for a Kleenex. “There’s nothing left to lose.”

“On the contrary. There’s a lot left to lose. Your scandal will smear all over Empire and hurt Denise.”

“Hurt Denise?” I looked up from my Kleenex. “My heart is broken, my life is in ruins, the man I love has left me.” My voice spiraled upward in disbelief. “And you’re afraid I will hurt Denise?”

“I don’t want her upset. This pregnancy has been hard on her. Any scandal of yours will hurt her too.”