Page 114 of A Bossy Surprise

“You will never catch me disparaging Kayla’s work or her effort, but the fact remains she hasn’t paid her dues. I speak as someone who has. I’ve spent well over a decade climbing my way to where I am. It doesn’t seem fair that after only three years on the job, she’s my boss.”

“So what? You’re just going to leave us? We were the ones who gave you the opportunity that has made you desirable to NNA. Do you think they’re going to have as much faith and trust in you as we do?”

“First of all, you didn’t give me anything, I earned it. Secondly, even if I have to start from the bottom at NNA, it feels like the right move for me right now. This is a purely business decision.”

I’m done with this conversation. I hang up the phone and without another word to anyone present, head to my office.

I’m gazing out of the window when I hear my door open. I turn around and it’s Kayla.

“How could you not have known about this?” I ask.

Her face morphs from sympathy to defense. “I hope you’re not trying to blame this on me.”

“Who else deserves the blame? Gabrielle was your deputy. How could you not know that she was planning this?”

“She was my deputy, but we weren’t besties who confided everything in each other.”

“Still, you should have known something was up. I mean, she was working directly under you.”

“I know you’re angry, but you need to calm yourself quickly. I won’t take much more of this.”

“I don’t need to calm myself. We are staring into the face of ruin because you weren’t able to do your job.”

“I do my job very well. Last night was pretty good evidence of that.”

“Being a leader is not only about delivering results on paper, or on screen in this case. You also have to manage your people. Part of that is knowing what they are up to.”

“So you’re saying I should have spied on Gabrielle?”

“Well, if you had, we wouldn’t have been blindsided by this. Now the company is going down the drain. You could have stopped this.”

“Don’t put that on me. Also, this is not the end. We can rally and come back stronger than ever.”

“How? All of our key people are gone. Everyone behind and in front of the camera who mattered has left us. We can replace the people behind the scenes. That will take some time and take a toll on us. As far as on-air talent, how do you think our viewers are going to respond when all of our presenters and anchors are suddenly at NNA? They will follow them over.”

“That may be true, but you rescued this place from the brink of collapse before. You’ll simply just have to do it again.”

“I don’t have it in me to do it again. Maybe my dad was right. I should shut this place down and cut my losses.”

“You can’t be serious.”

I pause for a moment. “I think I am.”

Kayla’s face goes blank. She starts to say something, but stops herself. Instead, she turns around and walks out of the room.

Fucking Maurice. That malignant piece of shit.

I knew he was bad news from day one.

How could he have dealt me such a heavy blow?

How could things have gone so wrong overnight? I mean, it literally took one night for us to go from being on top of the world to being shoved to the bottom of the pile.

Fuck this. Fuck all of this.

I grab my keys and head home. Whether I’m going to forge ahead or throw in the towel, I can’t make that decision now.

Right this minute, I need to be anywhere but here.