Chapter 4 – The Meeting Diana Didn’t Expect

Audrey returned to full operational involvement at Winslow Beauty the following month, ending her year of anonymous salon work with considerably more clarity about the company’s culture than she’d anticipated finding, and scheduled a formal review meeting with Diana’s direct department, citing the pattern of internal complaints as the stated reason.

Diana arrived at the meeting with the same confident, dismissive energy she’d brought to the salon appointments, entirely unprepared for the identity of the executive now sitting across the conference table reviewing her department’s personnel file.

“Ms. Winslow,” Diana said, recognition dawning slowly and with visible, mounting horror as she registered the familiar face she’d last seen holding a nail file rather than chairing a corporate review. “I — I didn’t realize —”

“You didn’t realize your nail technician was also your company’s chairwoman,” Audrey said evenly, allowing the moment its full, uncomfortable weight. “I understand the confusion. I also understand, having now reviewed several internal complaints from your own team, that the condescension I experienced at the salon reflects a broader pattern in how you treat people you consider beneath your own position.”

Diana’s composure collapsed entirely, several attempted explanations dying before she could fully articulate them, the specific memory of her own dismissive comments about “just doing nails” clearly replaying with mortifying clarity.

“I need you to understand something clearly,” Audrey continued. “This company was built by my grandmother, who started exactly the kind of work you dismissed as having ‘no real future.’ I don’t take kindly to that attitude directed at anyone, whether it’s aimed at a salon technician or, as it turns out, at your own colleagues.”