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Chapter Twenty-Three
The house had been deafeninglyquiet for the last few days as Jonas let the dust settle. Since his arrest, Harvey had denied everything. From a jail cell, he had been pointing the finger at Jonas, as if he hadn’t been like a son to the man for a decade.
As much as Jonas hated the idea of an interview, he was starting to see that it was the only way to clear his name. Harvey was talking to everyone and anyone and lying the entire time. Jonas had to fight him as much as he could in the papers as well it seemed.
Harrison had set up an interview with a woman named Grace Atwater. Jonas had never heard of her, but since he said no to Bea and Meghan, he was left with her. Though after a day of thinking about it, he knew he should have just given the interview to Bea Bradford since she had worked so hard to get an interview from him in the first place. But then again, he hated to reward her for her actions.
“I’ve read some of Atwater’s stories, and I think she’ll do great with this kind of article. Have you had a chance to look over the articles I sent you?” Harrison asked as they walked into the paper’s office.
“No, I trust you,” he said. He hadn’t been doing anything over the last few days except thinking about Buzz and everything that had happened between them in the time he knew her. From the night in the hotel until she admitted she had been doing everything for a story. Everything.
Louisa hadn’t returned to the house since her mom and the boys left. He had texted her that Judith was gone, but still, the girl didn’t come home. She was staying with friends, was all she said. No address or any more information about where she was.
“I couldn’t have gotten you Bea Bradford even if you’d wanted her. She got fired.” Harrison led him through the busy entry of the newspaper.
“Did you talk to her about me?” he asked. It was the only link he could think of for her to know what was going on before it actually happened.
“No, especially not her since she’s a reporter—was a reporter. I haven’t heard what she plans to do now,” Harrison stated.
“I’m sure that getting out of reporting isn’t actually going to happen for her,” Jonas argued. He knew the woman better than Harrison did, after all.
“Do you know her?” Harrison stopped and looked at him.
“She spent some time stalking me. I finally figured her out, though. Sent her packing,” he finally admitted.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I could have talked to her about it.”
“I didn’t realize it for a few days.”
“You didn’t notice a Lovely for days? She must be losing her touch.” Harrison chuckled as he opened the door to a conference room with a lone woman at the table. For a second, he had hoped it would be Buzz. Instead, the woman was a stranger, and he didn’t want to talk to her at all.
“Jonas Raiden? I’m Grace Atwater. Nice to meet you.” The woman stood up with a wide smile on her face.
“Nice to meet you as well, Grace,” he said.
“Mr. Dean, thank you for bringing him in.” Grace sat down and looked at her paper.
An hour later, the interview was over, and Grace seemed happy with what he had told her. More than pleased with her questions, it seemed.
“Thank you for the interview, Jonas. I will send the perliminary article to Harrison for approval before we run it. I can almost guarantee the front page with this.”
“Thank you, Grace, for doing this for me.”
“I’m just happy you didn’t go with Meghan, but after she almost broke into your house, I can understand it. I had assumed Bea would get the article, but her loss is my gain. Leave it to her to land in the middle of a front-page article and mess it up. That’s Bea.” Grace chuckled to herself.
“Maybe she was just never given a chance around here,” Harrison stated as he pushed Jonas out of the door. Jonas could hear an edge to the man’s voice.
“You have to make your own chances here, Harrison. Bea just couldn’t close the deal. She didn’t have the drive to succeed in this world. All fluff and no substance on that one.” Grace had no idea when to stop talking.
Jonas stopped and stared at the woman. “Nobody was asking for your opinion, Atwater. Bea might have been the best reporter this paper had. The paper never cared enough to see what she could do. Now she is gone.” Without a word, he grabbed the notes the woman had meticulously taken the entire meeting. “She will be getting this interview, not you.”
“She doesn’t work here.” She grabbed at the papers but missed.
“Then I will find where she’s working, and that will be the paper that gets this article.” He ripped the papers, and the woman visibly groaned at him as he tossed the pieces on the floor. Her big story was gone.
“See if anyone reads it now, Raiden. Nobody even cares about you and your company!” Atwater called after them as they headed out of the office and out of the building. He was half surprised when nobody chased after them.
“Sorry about that, Harrison. I know an interview was our best bet, but …” He stopped and looked at his friend, who was just staring at him. “What?”
