"You knew exactly what you were doing. And you need this job, don't you? Your mother's medication doesn't pay for itself."
Kiana felt tears rise, but she held them back. Shenine slid a pen toward her. "Sign the forms. By Friday, the file will show Maya approved the spending. The audit committee can deal with her instead of interfering with our launch."
"And Jamal's name?"
"I'll take care of Jamal. He trusts me."
Kiana picked up the pen. She signed one page, then another, her hand moving more slowly with each line. She knew it was wrong. She knew she was creating the same kind of evidence she feared would be used against her. Shenine watched closely and corrected the shape of one initial, speaking with the bored patience of someone supervising an administrative task.
By the sixth page, Kiana could no longer keep her hand steady. She put down the pen. "I can't keep doing this."
"You can and you will."
"No."
Shenine stood. "If you walk out now, every signature you already placed becomes your problem. I will tell them you created the entire approval file. I will say you took money and tried to blame me."
Kiana looked at the signed pages. Fear pressed against her ribs. The easiest option was to finish what she had started and hope nobody ever noticed. She had spent months choosing the easiest option, and each choice had made the next one harder.
"I need a break," she said.
Shenine checked the clock. "Ten minutes. Then you come back and finish."
Kiana walked out of the room and went straight to the women's restroom. She locked a stall and called the number in the independent-audit notice. She had written it down when the email arrived Wednesday, telling herself she would probably never use it. Now she spoke to a receptionist and asked whether she could report pressure to falsify approvals without having to speak first to Derek or Shenine.
Within minutes, an investigator returned her call. Kiana described the invoices and the names she had written. She did not claim innocence. She said plainly that she had signed some of the pages because she was afraid, and that Shenine had threatened to blame her for the prototype if she refused.
"You need independent legal advice," the investigator told her. "Do not sign another document. Do not take original records home. I am notifying outside counsel and requesting protection for the materials where they are. Can you meet us somewhere safe and private this afternoon?"
Kiana looked at her reflection in the restroom mirror. Her face was pale and frightened. She had wanted someone else to take responsibility for stopping Shenine. The voice on the phone was telling her that the next choice was hers.
"Yes," she whispered. "I can meet."
When she returned to her desk, she sent a work message saying she had been instructed not to process further approvals pending a compliance review. She did not name the investigator. She did not tell Maya. She did not attempt to erase the pages she had signed, because erasing them would turn a terrible decision into another lie.