Chapter 8 - VICTORIA DOESN'T CANCEL THE CONTRACT
The internet wanted a cleaner story.
Local news posted:
WORKER FIRED AFTER HEROIC RESCUE.
Comments demanded:
fire Jackson,
give Daniel the company,
make him CEO,
cancel Blake Logistics.
Victoria did none of those things.
Grant Retail issued a short statement:
The incident is under review as part of our vendor safety and conduct process.
Then Victoria paused the contract-renewal decision for thirty days.
Not the active contract.
Stores still needed freight.
Employees still needed jobs.
A full immediate cancellation would punish hundreds of people who had not slapped Daniel.
Instead Grant required:
incident review,
safety-policy assessment,
personnel-action review,
and service-metric validation.
Jackson called Victoria.
“You’re putting three hundred jobs at risk over one employee.”
Victoria answered:
“No. I’m asking whether your system creates the risk.”
That distinction became the center of the next month.
Grant’s legal team also warned Victoria about becoming personally involved.
“You were the accident victim.”
“I know.”
“You also lead the customer.”
“I know.”
“So procurement decisions cannot look like personal retaliation.”
Victoria understood.
She recused herself from the final scoring of Blake’s renewal.
Her chief operating officer chaired that committee instead.
Victoria still gave witness testimony about the crash and what she saw in the conference room.
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But she did not cast the deciding commercial vote.
Power required procedure too.
