Page 25 of Emperor of Corruption
“I’ll see you soon, Lyra,” I call out.
She doesn’t look back or acknowledge my words, which cements my decision.
I’ll be seeing her much sooner than fuckingWednesday.
Chapter Ten
Lyra
Idon’t think I can stand the beating spray of a hot shower on my ass, so as soon as I get home, I draw myself a bath.
It isn’t much better than the shower. Quite literallyeverythinghurts. Using the bathroom is as arduous as any contact whatsoever on my backside. What’s worse than the physical pain is the shame and embarrassment, and the deep-set knowledge that Killian has onlyjustgotten started with me.
I have another eight weeks of this to tolerate, and as I climb into bed—face-first, since I’m no longer able to lie on my back—I cry like a child. I decide to give myself the rest of the day to cry and mourn the loss of my dignity and control of my own life. I don’t even have the presence of mind to type up notes from my interview, because the very thought of Killian is painful… so I simply spend a good eight hours throwing myself a pity-party.
Before bed, I text Annalise to let her know I won’t be available this weekend, and apply some old arnica cream I found in the bathroom to my ass. I go to sleep praying that I wake up in less pain, my eyes swollen and my nose stuffed from all the crying. A quiet resolve begins to creep over me. I might be beaten down now, but I won’t be forever. Tomorrow, I intend to get to work.
First thing in the morning, I outfit my desk chair with a mountain of pillows, and spend ten minutes wincing through discomfort as I open my shiny laptop from Timmy. In lieu of typing up notes regarding Killian, I instead dive into researching him.
I go to his company website and search up a list of current employees, jotting down their employment dates in my notebook. I realize that his current secretary has only been working for him for a year, so I do a deep-dive, searching out who his previous secretary was and whether they might be someone I could contact as a source.
It takes two full hours of searching through everything possible—social media, online forums—for me to find the previous secretary’s name.Rhea Seymour. I look her up on various social media platforms, searching for posts she made around her time of leaving Helixon Biopharma as the CEO’s executive assistant. Executive assistants are more prestigious than secretaries, and they usually manage all of their employer’s affairs, from their calendar to their meetings and workloads.
I find a brief post she made on Twitter a month after leaving Killian’s service:Got my severance package. Finally closing that chapter of my life and moving on. #goodriddance.
My heart speeds up at the tone of her post—she washappyto leave. Maybe evenrelieved. That doesn’t necessarily mean she’ll meet with a reporter, but if she does, I bet she’ll have a lot to say.
I look into her a bit more until I find her current position—executive assistant for a nonprofit hospital’s CEO—and her personalemail address. I draft a brief email to her, attempting to play on her heartstrings without divulging too much. I mention my background (prizes and awards tend to catch people’s attention), the fact that I’ve been hired to do a full profile on Killian, and I’d like to learn as much about him as I can. I don’t overtly state that I’m looking to dig up dirt on him, since there’s always a chance Rhea is loyal enough to forward this to Killian, but I do let the general tone of the email hint that I’m looking out for myself while spending time with him.
What shocks me is that her reply comestwo minutes later. Either she’sthateager to speak with me or eager to tell me to fuck off. My heart races as I open her email, which starts out with “My condolences on your assignment.” The rest offers a meeting this Thursday evening at 8p.m.
I’m shocked at how easy it was to gain her agreement. Usually, I don’t get any replies when I’m digging into potential sources, and when I do, the tones are derisive and suspicious. Rhea seems almosteagerto talk with me. It’s possible she has a story she’s been wanting to tell for some time.
It’s possible that Killian did to her what he’s doing to me, and that no previous reporter has dug into him far enough to find Rhea. Hedidcomment on how easy it was to fool everyone who came before me…
I don’t mark the meeting on any of my calendars in case they’re being monitored, but I do memorize the date, time, and place, and mentally shift around my Thursday schedule to accommodate it.
What Rhea doesn’t realize is that she’s unwittingly given me hope. I’m careful not to betoooptimistic, this could end up being a fluke… but Rhea’s reply tells me that not everyone who’s been in Killian’s vicinity is enamored with him. I could still write an exposé that would ruin him—IknowI can.
WhenI power down my laptop for the night and go to sleep, I feel decidedly more optimistic about my future prospects—and the hope even significantly dulls the pain from the bruises on my ass.
One of the worst parts of heading into work Monday morning is that there are no pillows I can put on my office chair to soften the blow of having to sit down. Fortunately, however, I have a small couch in my office, so that’s where I set up for the day, laptop in my lap.
I work on a couple of smaller projects I have going on and review some work from the junior staff writers I help manage. At around midday, during my designated lunch hour—which I seldom take—I get a text on my phone from an unknown number.
As soon as I read it,Dinner tonight?, I know who it’s from.
Killian King has some fucking gall to continue asking me out after the things he’s put me through. My bloodboilsat his arrogance and entitlement—I want to write out an entireessaythat details all of the illegal things he’s done—but instead, I delete the message and report it as spam.
Another one comes thirty minutes later, from the same number. This one has an address of an upscale steakhouse and a time for a reservation. I delete it as well, but yetanothertext comes.
Don’t disappoint me, Lyra.
Disappoint him?Disappoint him?As if my refusal to entertain his ludicrous suggestions is adisappointingfaultof mine?
Fuck him. Fuck everything about him. Very few times in my life have I felt the sort of hatred that boils inside me any time I think of Killian.
I shut down my phone for the day, toss it aside, and throw myself back into work. I’m skating on thin ice with Sarah since I pushed back on working with Killian, so my performance needs to be top-notch, or she’ll get petty. I like Sarah overall; she’s smart, sharp, forward-thinking, andextremelygood at her job… but I’ve also seen how bitchy she can become when people don’t do what she tells them. We aren’tfriends,per se, but we’re friendly and she likes me, so I think as long as I never mention my desire to get as far away from Killian as possible again, I’ll be fine in a few weeks.
