Inside the narrow stall, Nikki stood perfectly still. Her back was pressed flat against the partition, her hands balled into tight fists at her sides.
They are the bitch, their whole family are bitches.
For a fleeting microsecond, a wave of profound, suffocating hurt threatened to crush her chest. She had wanted to save these people.
She had walked into this building carrying the heavy, terrifying blueprint of a human-AI rebellion in her mind, only to realize that the very people she was trying to protect viewed her as a pampered traitor.
But the hurt didn't last.
Nikki was not a fragile woman who crumbled at the first sign of gossip. She was not going to hide in a bathroom stall while two women in clean, pressed uniforms tore down her name.
Her dark eyes hardened.
Nikki unlocked the stall and pushed the heavy door open.
