Page 121 of Wildflower
She huffs and crosses her arms.
“Is Rey okay?” I ask, more gently now, and Nia shrugs.
“She’s not used to this. The press is all over this story, Mark. Last time is too fresh in their memories.”
Last time…
“What’s the story? That she’s my intern?”
“Primarily, yes,” Nia says and opens the laptop in front of me again. “Read it.”
I see the header now. “The fucking gossip blog.”
“This is a copy. It’s been taken down, but it was up long enough to go viral.”
I read it, and the knot in my chest grows tighter. The way they’re portraying Rey makes me see red, as if she’s not worthy of the role she has here. And they make me out to be the same as Damian.
I knew this would be the narrative, but I didn’t expect it’d hit me like a gut punch, anyway.
Kurt puts a hand on my shoulder. “Listen, it’s getting worse the more this spirals out of control, there are some forums that call the modelling agency a glorified escort service, and you can imagine where this is going. Neither of you look particularly good right now.”
I shake my head. What have I done? What’s going to happen to Rey? Infinio?
“Fuck, do we need to call an emergency board?”
“Already done, as per protocol. We’re meeting in ten minutes on Zoom,” Nia says, and checks something on her laptop. “Graham Freed, Sebastian Vincent, and Choi Hana are coming in person.”
Sebastian. Fuck. I’ve not told him yet. He’ll be entirely blindsided as a friend as well as an investor. Shit. I took my eye off the ball, and look what happened.
“Alright, I need a minute to call Rey.”
“No, we have to go through your legal standing, Mark. You’ve signed policies and contracts that you’ve now broken, you’ve misused company property, and before you go into this meeting, you need to be prepared.”
I swallow hard and bite the inside of my cheek. “Fine.”
If I could be sucked into a black hole right now, I’d welcome it. I was never the guy to get into trouble. Not in school, not at home.
Diligent. Upstanding. Reliable. Those are words I’m used to hearing.
Now all I hear are the people who used to look at me with respect and gratitude for my relentless dedication to the company calling me selfish, reckless, and the worst:
Damian.
“I told you I met her outside of work. Can we take that angle?” I ask.
“But you continued it after knowing it was against the rules. You should have come forward immediately,” Hana says. “This secrecy, breaking the rules—this is how Damian started.”
“But I didn’t know what it was early on, and I came to Graham once I did. Doesn’t that count for something?”
Hana presses her lips together. I meet Sebastian’s eyes, hoping for an inkling of support, but his black eyes are furious. I give him an apologetic look, and he shakes his head.
“Her backstory is plastered all over the internet already,” Graham says. “We don’t know what’s true, but with her erratic work history and current … situation, maybe you were an easy way out?”
“Don’t you dare.” I glare at him, not holding back this time, regardless of what he means to me. Rey means more. “She is not after my money.”
I shake my head at the ridiculous story they’re spinning.
“Are you saying I’m being accused of having poor judgement in women?”
