All the Doubts (All the Lies #3) - Charlotte Byrd Page 0,1
toxic, but none were particularly interesting either. Then he came into my life and suddenly every interaction that we have had since sends shivers down my spine. It's almost as if there are sparks that go off whenever we share the same air.
When I get back to the office, I walk along the perimeter, trying to avoid Corrin and Shelby who are talking by the water cooler. I slip by and they don't notice me. I hide in my cubicle, nursing a cup of hot tea in my thermos. I have a lot of work to do and I still have to talk to her about not publishing the article. Frankly, I don't know how to do this.
To waste some time, I check my email and that's when I see it.
They have printed it. It's basically the notes that I have given her, with a little bit added, but mostly printed as is. I stare at the screen and then reload the website over and over again, hoping that this isn't true. Maybe this is just some sort of mistake. A trial run.
No, no, no. I shake my head and swing my arm around, knocking the thermos onto the floor. The top pops open and hot liquid spills out everywhere. I pull some tissues from the box on the table and throw them on top of the carpet, letting it soak in, but my tension returns to the screen.
With my heartbeat elevated, I scan the article, reading and not reading at the same time. The highlights are clear. She has included everything that I sent her, even the fact that I have spoken with him.
Journalism ethics have come under attack in recent years since the explosion of online content with little regard to the truth. This is a magazine article that is not just true but is also salacious. The fact that the writer had a sexual relationship with the subject is probably something that just added to the general interest of the story.
For someone who is trying to get herself taken seriously, I know that this is a nail in the coffin of my career.
Suddenly, my thoughts return to Liam. Has he seen this yet?
I look at the time, but I can't remember what time it was when we separated. I haven't heard from him, but that doesn't mean anything. I want to call him, but I'm afraid. If he doesn't know, then I can't hide this from him. If he does, what does this mean for us?
My head starts to spin. I don't know what to do. I don't know where to go. I need to make this go away, but how?
With blood rushing between my temples, I rise to my feet and force myself to put one foot in front of the other until I get to Corrin's office.
“Why?” I ask.
She looks up from her screen. I clear my throat and ask her why again, but this time my voice is lower and it's more of a demand.
She opens her mouth to say something, but Shelby comes in from behind.
“Emma, I'm sorry,” Shelby says, throwing her manicured fingers up in the air in a sign of surrender, but it's clearly not a surrender.
If this is anything, then it's a declaration of war. “What you wrote, your notes, they were so detailed and so wonderful. I just had to share it with Corrin.”
“They are notes. They weren't the story. They weren’t an article.”
“That's where you're wrong,” Corrin says, keeping her tone neutral and detached. “There was a lot of life in that piece that you call your notes. It had your reactions, your shock, and your interactions with the subject.”
“The subject? You mean D. B. Carter? You mean Liam? How can you call him that?” I demand to know.
“Emma, I know that you have had a personal relationship with him and that's exactly why I wanted to print what happened and what you have found. Our readers are interested in that. No one wants dry nonfiction anymore, especially not in floundering magazines. The story, this trilogy of stories is going to put your name on the map. Have you seen the number of retweets that it has? Everyone is impatiently waiting for the final conclusion. The reveal.”
“There is no reveal,” I say, shaking my head. “The story is that you had no right to print this. He didn't agree to it and neither did I.”
“Of course, I know that this has placed you in a difficult position, but