Page 174 of His Good Girl

Vale left without another word and Benjamin closed the door behind him.

For countable seconds, the room held its breath.

Then Dana said, “That went well.”

Tom sat down like his knees had submitted a resignation. “I think I blacked out for part of it.”

“You threatened discovery,” Benjamin said. “It was the best I’ve ever seen you.”

Tom blinked. “Thank you?”

“Don’t get greedy.”

Callum looked at me. The cold CEO mask was still there, mostly. But beneath it was relief, and maybe pride, as well as fear that had not yet found somewhere to go. He reached for me under the table, where no one could see, and touched two fingers to the top of my hand. I did not say or do anything because Dana had already stood and was looking at us with the expression of a woman preparing to introduce us to the next disaster.

“Now,” she said, “we stop letting them write the other story.”

I looked up. “The other story?”

“The sex scandal,” she said briskly.

Tom made a small, injured noise.

Dana ignored him. “If Lang leaks anything now, they look desperate, but desperation will still stain. They already have a narrative ready. Billionaire CEO hires young employee. He’s also her godfather and her dead father’s best friend. It’s ugly because they arranged it to be ugly.”

My stomach tightened.

Benjamin’s eyes lit with reluctant admiration. “Ah.”

“What?” I asked.

He looked at me. “She’s about to weaponize sincerity.”

Dana smiled, but it was not comforting. “I know a reporter,” she said.

“Of course you do,” Benjamin muttered.

“A good one. Her name is Margo Bell. She works forVanity Fair. She writes profiles that make billionaires sound human. She owes me one.”

Callum looked wary. “Dana…”

“No,” she warned. “Don’t you ‘Dana’ me. If you try to bury the relationship now, it becomes whatever Lang says it is. If you come out first, cleanly, attractively, with appropriate HR firewalls and just enough emotional honesty to make people feel intrusive for judging it, then Lang loses the dirt before they can throw it.”

Tom leaned forward. “From a legal standpoint?—”

“Tom,” Dana snapped, not looking at him.

He stopped.

She turned to me. “Avery?”

My heart jolted. “Me?”

“Yes, you. The person whose face will be in this article and whose life these people tried to turn into a headline.”

Callum’s eyes went to my face immediately.

Dana softened by half a degree, which for her was basically a weighted blanket. “You do not have to do this.”