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“It’s been a feud for years. He’s bitter about some things that happened back when I was starting up MonTech. It’s all so far in the past, I can’t believe he’d come at usnow. But, that’s also his style. He never forgets anything and he just lies in the weeds and waits for an opportunity to strike.”
"How did you find out?" I asked Maya.
"I maybe shouldn’t tell you. It’s not quite on the up and up. Brielle knows a hacker," Maya replied, shrugging her shoulders. "She managed to get access to the senator's emails and found a trail of payments to the TRA executives."
I sat back down on the bed, feeling numb. The pieces of the puzzle were starting to come together. But what could we do? John Summer was a powerful man, and he had friends in high places. I could feel the anger boil over. The audacity of the man!
I puffed with disbelief, then chuckled silently to myself as I shook my head.
Maya looked confused. "What? What are you laughing about?"
"It's just ironic. I invite him to everything, am nice to him whenever I can, but it's really the devil you know. Like the company gala, I invited him and his entire family. He just brought his daughter – you might have seen her. Quite a striking redhead, but I get the feeling she's as spoiled as they come."
Something clicked in Maya's eyes, like she had a realization.
Now I felt it was my turn to ask her what was up. "Something changed in your eyes. What's up?" I asked.
"Oh, nothing. Just that I did see her and now this kind of makes sense. I would say that your feeling about her is very correct."
"Well, honestly, I can hardly believe this. Part of me just wants to rip him apart. But I know that's not going to help anything.
Maya could see the rage in my eyes, and she tried to calm me down.
"Jack, please don't do anything rash. We need to think this through carefully."
I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. She was right. We needed to be smart about this. I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. I needed to plan my next move carefully.
"I won't do anything rash," I said finally. "But that doesn't mean I can't get someone to tank his campaign, this time with real evidence of wrongdoing."
Maya looked at me, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Are you serious? You're going to take on a senator? Do you know how risky that is?"
I smiled at her.
"Risk has always been a part of our business, Maya. And I won't be doing this alone. I'll gather all the evidence I can and present it to the right people. We'll make sure he pays for what he's done to our company."
Maya nodded, looking both impressed and worried.
"Okay, but you need to be careful. We don't want to make any missteps."
"I know. I'll be careful," I promised, standing up from the bed. "I'm going to start gathering everything I need. I’m going to take down the honorable John Summer." I did air quotes when I said, "honorable".
Maya stood too.
“I’m going to start working on the article. I’ll need buy-in on the top for this one. You be careful.”
I drew Maya in for a kiss.
“Oh, I will.”
Chapter 30
Maya
Isatnervouslyinthe conference room on the top floor of the TRA news building, my hands clasped tightly together in my lap. I took deep breaths, trying to calm my racing heart as I waited for the meeting to start. It had taken me weeks of hard work, long hours of research, and investigation to finally gather enough evidence to clear Jack's name. I had poured over legal documents, interviewed witnesses, and followed leads that led me to the truth. And now, I was about to present all of it to the news outlet that had accused Jack of a crime he didn't commit.
As I waited, my mind raced with doubts and fears. What if the evidence wasn't enough? What if they didn't believe me? What if Jack still left me, now that his problems were over? I couldn't shake the feeling that I was doing all of this for nothing, that it wouldn't make a difference in the end. But I knew that I had to try, for Jack's sake and my own peace of mind.
