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She didn’t even help me out money-wise. Since out of the two of us, I was the one with a degree, she thought that meant I was financially stable enough to take care of a kid without any help.
When I dropped Lucas off at daycare and hugged him tight and told him to be a good boy, Clark’s voice rang in my ear once more, but this time I knew he was wrong.
I wasn’t stuck doing anything. Lucas was more my kid than he had ever been Bethany’s, and while it wasn’t what I had envisioned for my life, I couldn’t see myself changing anything about it.
My hands shook as I drove to work. It was time to make things more official. If Bethany was going to be out, she needed to put her choice into words. Legal words.
“Good morning,” I hummed as I made my way to my cubicle.
“Girl,” Astrid greeted me with a full smile.
She was in charge of gossip, for lack of a better word. She managed the paper’s social media and sprinkled it with things that happened to be going on in the surrounding counties.
“Please tell me that was you who caused all that commotion the other day in Sunny Pines.”
My stomach dropped. Had word gotten out?
“What?” I squeaked.
If my editor caught wind of this, I would be taken off the case. Number one rule in journalism and tailing someone was being discreet.
Astrid waved a hand in dismissal toward our editor, Ronnie’s, office. “I just know because I have sources.”
She said this with great accomplishment. I imagined setting up a gossip tree was something to feel accomplished by.
“Oriana!” Ronnie yelled from his office.
I grimaced. He was going to want an update.
As I walked to his office, I was thinking of the things I could say to buy myself more time, or the articles I could write instead.
“Hey, Ronnie.” I waved as I walked in, going straight to the chair across from his desk. “I’m going to need a little more time with the mayor’s article.”
I decided that going for honesty was the best approach to this predicament. I mean, big white whales couldn’t be captured on the first go, and I was sure Ronnie knew this.
“Mayor Callahan has been labeled off-limits for us,” he said almost bitterly.
My stomach sank.
“What? Why?” I held my breath, waiting for a perfectly reasonable explanation.
Ronnie made a face and threw a printed email toward me.
To say I was fuming was putting it lightly. Sure, the email made sense. Us snooping around would be hindering an ongoing investigation. And obviously much more was at play than just a mayor embezzling money. All of that sounded fair. It sucked, but I somewhat understood it. I wasn’t crazed enough to want to get a story out there no matter what. It could be dangerous to only give half-truths. The public would be the ones hurt in the end, or innocent bystanders. Making a name for oneself with only half a story wasn’t worth it.
What did bother me was the name attached to the email: Clark Carson.
He had gone behind my back to get me taken off this case. He could have just talked to me, and I would have…
No, I wouldn’t have. He would have told me to back off, and I would have done it more to spite him. I could admit to that.
“So, that’s it?” I expressed, throwing the paper back on Ronnie’s desk.
“There’s a charity gala this weekend,” he told me as he slid a ticket my way.
“But we are not to interfere with an ongoing investigation.” I smiled as I reached for it.
“We aren’t interfering with anything.” Ronnie shrugged. “You are simply doing your job, reporting on all of the counties’ events, and should you happen to befriend a certain someone…well, there’s nothing to be done about that.”
