Chapter 13 - The Woman Behind the Scripts
Tasha Bell had spent four nights deciding whether to speak. If Homefront Passage closed, fourteen employees would lose their income. Two were veterans managing chronic injuries. She cared about them, and she needed her own paycheck to cover her son's asthma medication.
Then Mrs. Holloway called to say another charge had appeared despite a written cancellation. Tasha found the customer's account marked DO NOT CLOSE UNTIL RETENTION CALL. She'd seen that instruction too many times.
She met with an attorney before sharing company records. She would not take client files to Maya or send private information to a newspaper. Through counsel, she arranged to provide relevant sales scripts, approved training slides, and internal complaint summaries to investigators who had authority to receive them.
Warren Vick asked why she'd hired a lawyer.
“Because you told me to lie about what customers heard,” she said.
“I told you to explain our agreement.”
“You told us to call the fee a reservation for a place in the VA queue. There is no queue we can reserve.”
Warren sat heavily. His brother's photograph stood on the shelf behind him. It had once reminded him why he started the business. Now he couldn't bear to look at it.
“I thought we could pay back the early investors and fix the sales process later,” he said.
“Later was someone's grocery money.”
He offered Tasha a promotion to supervise compliance. She shook her head. “Real compliance can't depend on whether I stay quiet.”
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By Friday the company had halted new enrollments while counsel reviewed complaints. That decision protected future customers but left existing clients uncertain. Denise's attorney requested a full accounting of her payments. Mrs. Holloway submitted her cancellation proof. Clara continued to assist veterans with legitimate claims, independently of the company's fate.
Noah told Maya, in a brief message, that his mother wanted him to stop carrying all the letters home. She had asked him to meet her for dinner instead. It was the first good news he had shared in weeks.
