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‘I was at awedding! I thought she was safe!’
‘So you didn’t make arrangements for someone to watch her?’
‘I know I’m not a perfect mother,’ Alexa pleads. ‘But I love my daughter. I do the best I can. I support both of us, I look after her and make sure—’
‘You left her in your car,’ Quinn says.
‘I made a mistake!’
‘And then you abandoned her to have sex with a stranger. You can see why some people might question your ability as a parent.’
‘Would they question it if I was a man?’ Alexa asks. ‘Ididn’tabandon her. I was at a wedding with my friends. I told you, I thought she was safe! Wouldn’t you? Wouldn’t anyone?’
‘That isn’t the—’
‘If I was her father, not her mother, would my sex life be an issue?’ Alexa demands. Suddenly, she’s sitting up straighter. ‘Why amIheld to a higher standard? If her dad had got drunk and had a one-night stand, everyone would accept it was a mistake, not a moral failing, wouldn’t they? They’d say losing his daughter was its own punishment. But because I’m her mother, because I’m a woman, I’m expected to beperfect. I’m held to a different standard. How is that fair?’
Quinn realises this interview is running away from her, and she can’t quite understand why. ‘It’s not about your sex life,’ she says, in an attempt to wrench it back on course. ‘You left a three-year-old wandering around in the dark, and it’s clear you prioritise your work over your daughter. What kind of motherareyou?’
Too late, she realises she’s gone too far.
Alexa Martini may be the poster child for bad parenting but, unless she’s actively involved in her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still a bereaved mother who’s lost her child.
Quinn could kick herself. She let her personal bias take over, and she’s just given Alexa what she needed: the sympathy of her audience.
‘Do you think I somehowdeservedthis?’ Alexa asks.
‘This isn’t personal, Ms Martini.’
‘Of course it is! Do you think I shouldn’t care about my work because I have a child?’
‘Not if it’s at your child’s expense.’
‘I have a career,’ Alexa says. ‘In the minds of a lot of people, that’s enough right there to make me a bad mother. It’s hard enough when stay-at-home mothers accuse me of puttingmyself first because I love my job. Trust me, many of them have been kind enough to share their views with me on social media over the past two weeks. But you know what’s worse, Ms Wilde?’ Her sarcasm is thick, and bitter. ‘When other women, career women like me, do it, too.’
The barb hits home. Quinn doesn’t know why she went after Alexa like that, and she doesn’t want to dig too deeply.Thisis why she prefers covering wars. Being shot at is so much less complicated.
She’s not surprised when her mobile vibrates with an incoming call from INN’s editor less than five minutes after they come off-air.
‘What the actual fuck?’ Christie Bradley says.
‘Look, I know, but—’
‘You just created one hell of a shitstorm,’ Christie says. ‘Hashtag QuinnWildeApologiseNow is already trending on Twitter. I’ve had INN’s board chair on to me! Since when do we go after the victim, Quinn? Not to mention attacking women for trying to juggle kids and a career. Jesus.’
‘She opened that door—’
‘Then shame on you as a journalist for letting her set the agenda.’
The editor’s judgement burns, not least because Quinn knows she’s right.
‘Well, you’ve got what you wanted,’ Christie says, her tone heavy with disappointment. ‘You’re off the story. I don’t want you anywhere near Alexa Martini. I’ve told the International Desk to book you a flight to Syria first thing.’
Except Quinn has never let a story go in her entire journalistic career.
