After eight months of pre-trial incarceration, endless speculation, and millions of dollars spent on attorneys, the United States of America v. Sean Combs trial came to an unsatisfying conclusion earlier this month. Combs, a hip-hop mogul with endless access to fame, wealth, and power, was facing a life sentence if convicted of the five counts charged by the Southern District of New York. Despite compelling testimony from several of his victims, including his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, the jury ultimately acquitted him of three of the most serious charges, including sex trafficking, and convicted him on two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution.

Combs is now facing 20 years, with legal experts estimating that he will likely be sentenced to less than five years and will have that time reduced by 13 months because he was denied both pre-trial and post-trial bail. It is certainly a disappointing outcome, especially for those of us—me included—who perceived this as the proverbial first domino in the long overdue reckoning owed to Black women in hip-hop.

I understand the hopelessness. I even understand the fear. However, as we sort through the wreckage of this trial, another possibility emerges. The jury acquitted Combs on two counts of sex trafficking for a number of reasons, including the fact that the SDNY overreached with the charges. But as I followed the trial, it became abundantly clear that the prosecution was committed to presenting Ventura and the witness known as “Jane” as victims who were forced to participate in sex acts. However, the defense team was able to split those hairs, lean into the sexist idea that these women were willing to compromise themselves for access to Combs’ wealth and fame, and ultimately convince the jury that they were willing participants in their own abuse.

But between those two legal extremes, there is another option here, one that could signal new protections for women who are publicly regarded as girlfriends to powerful, wealthy men but are privately treated as sex workers existing at the beck and call of their primary client. If the movement to decriminalize sex work were successful, there might be an avenue for those like Ventura and the anonymized Jane to seek recourse when they are abused in the act of providing of service without facing the possibility of being criminalized or prosecuted for participating in sex work. If these women were regarded as workers instead of the gold diggers Combs’ defense team depicted them as, then there might even be space in our cultural imagination to debunk the notion that these women were willing to compromise their “moral integrity” in exchange for access to wealth, power, and fame.