"...I'll ask you again: WHAT are YOU going to do about it?"
Mara looked toward the staircase, then back at Rosa. "I could... tell Nico?"
"You could," Rosa agreed. "And he would handle it. He'd fire them, maybe worse, and they'd leave here knowing that you ran to him like a child tattling to her father."
She tilted her head. "Is that the message you want to send? That you can't command respect on your own?"
Mara felt her stomach twisting into knots. "Then what should I do?"
"You walk over there," Rosa said, gesturing with her cane toward the staircase, "and you remind them exactly who you are. And if they don't listen, then you can threaten to tell Nico. But you give them the chance to fix it first."
Mara swallowed hard. "I don't know how to…"
"You'll learn." Rosa stepped aside, leaving the path to the staircase clear. "Go."
Mara's heart was pounding.
