Chapter 10 - Vanessa And I Ended Up In The Same Room Again
The civil claim eventually went to mediation.
I did not want to see Vanessa.
My lawyer said I might have to.
So I prepared.
No security uniform.
No ballroom.
No rose petals.
Just a conference center with cheap coffee and fluorescent lights.
Vanessa arrived in cream trousers and a cashmere sweater.
She looked smaller without an audience.
Not physically.
Socially.
Her attorney did most of the speaking.
Mine did too.
After several hours, the mediators separated us.
Then late in the afternoon, Vanessa requested five minutes with me in the room, attorneys present.
I almost refused.
Then agreed.
She sat across from me.
“I want you to know I didn’t mean what I said.”
I stared at her.
“Which part?”
She looked uncomfortable.
“The knees thing.”
“You shouted it in front of eighty people.”
“I was angry.”
“So was I.”
That silenced her.
I continued:
“I got suspended because I was angry.”
Vanessa looked down.
“I know.”
“Did you apologize to the servers?”
Her eyes lifted.
“What servers?”
That told me enough.
She still believed our conflict was extraordinary because I had fought back.
She had not yet understood that the real issue was how many people she treated badly when they didn’t.
I said:
“I’m sorry I swept you.”
Her mouth opened slightly.
“I shouldn’t have used force.”
Vanessa looked almost suspicious.
Then I added:
“You humiliating me does not make that part right.”
She nodded slowly.
For one strange second, the room felt almost human.
Then I said:
“But I’m not apologizing for refusing to believe I belong beneath you.”
Her face tightened again.
There it was.
The wall.
The mediation ended later that day with a modest settlement largely covered through insurance, no admission of intentional injury, and mutual closure of civil claims.
May you like
Nobody won.
That was healthy.
