Page 36 of Stranded with the Billionaire
Maybe Sterling could distract Grange with this. Put forward the tragedy of Ann and Michael’s current predicament rather than this bogus story of Sterling and Jake being a couple. The idea left a bad taste in Sterling’s mouth but she couldn’t afford to have a conscience about it, she reminded herself. Her job depended upon it.
When she landed in New York, Sterling went straight to the mall to get a new phone. The salesperson managed to salvage all her contact information and files from her broken phone and have them transferred to a new one. Sterling breathed a sigh of relief. That information was her income and she was grateful to have it back in a working phone.
She grabbed some money at an ATM for the taxi ride to Dubious. Grange had to give her that bonus. She deserved it after all that she’d been through trying to get the story on Jake Ramesly.
Look how that had backfired.
Sterling shook away the thought and the pain left from the hole in her life that Jake Ramesly had left behind. It didn’t matter. She hadn’t expected their friendship to continue. How could it? He’d been friends with Sara Hawkins, not Sterling Denver. The whole thing had been doomed from the start. All he was meant to be was a target for her pen and she couldn’t forget that. It didn’t matter if she’d become attached to him, even liked him. Her job was to provide an entertaining story. She couldn’t afford to become choosy and not run a good story just because she’d come to respect and like they guy the story was about.
As she maneuvered her crutches across the floor at Dubious, Sterling noticed that the building was unusually quiet. Even for a Saturday when they normally ran with half staff. She wondered if everyone was at a meeting, it was so eerily silent. Grange’s secretary wasn’t at her usual post. Most of the lights were off. Chairs were empty.
What had happened?
Frowning, Sterling tapped on Grange’s door, relieved to find him in his office. Grange had a banker’s box and was stowing his framed awards in it.
“What’s going on?” Sterling joked. “Did the whole department get a pink slip?”
Grange scowled at her. “You! You’re the cause of all of this!”
“Excuse me?” Sterling was surprised at the venom in Grange’s voice.
“Because of you and those Ramesly articles you wrote, we’ve been shut down,” Grange pulled another award off the wall, shoving it into the box.
“I don’t understand,” Sterling watched him in confusion. “You told me to write about the Ramesly family. This was all done under your direction. You said it was boosting sales of Dubious.”
“Jake Ramesly bought out Dubious and shut it down, taking the loss,” Grange growled. “He gave all of us severance packages and turned us out.”
“What?” Sterling felt like the world was tilting. Taking a deep breath, she tried to get her equilibrium back. “He can’t just do that, can he?”
Grange snorted. “He did. That’s what you can do when you’re a billionaire. You snap your fingers and everyone just gives you what you want.”
“Why? Why did he shut down the paper?” Sterling leaned heavily on her crutches, trying to make sense of it. Sure, Jake would have had been furious to find out that she was Sterling Denver, but to buy an entire paper and shut it down? Wasn’t that a bit overkill?
“I guess he didn’t like it,” came the sarcastic reply from her former boss. “Moreover, he didn’t like you.”
“Excuse me?”
Grange smiled maliciously. “The rest of us got severance. You however, have been fired. Terminated with cause. I have your papers here.”
Sterling automatically took the papers, looking down at them in shock. It was right there. She’d been fired and would not receive a severance package. Her last paycheck was there but that was all. Sterling had gambled everything she had in her bank account for the last month on the hope of creating lucrative articles for Dubious about Jake Ramesly and now that opportunity was gone. All she had was the paycheck in her hand and it was puny compared to what she’d lost. For a moment, she felt a little lightheaded. “I need to sit down.”
“If you’re going to faint, do it somewhere else,” Grange was surly as he pulled down another award. “We have to have the building vacant in the next hour so the real estate guys can come in to survey it.”
“It’s to be sold?” Sterling didn’t feel like she was keeping up in the conversation which was abnormal for her. It was like she was in some sort of surreal daze.
“Did you think Jake Ramesly wanted to run a rag paper?” he snorted in disbelief. “By the way, I feel like I should tell you since you’ve worked here for the past ten years, you’re not going to get another writing job in the industry.”
“Of course, I’ll get another job,” Sterling propped her crutches against the wall and took a seat. Her knee was aching. “I’m one of your top writers. I’m practically a brand name.”
“You’re blacklisted courtesy of the Rameslys,” Grange explained with some satisfaction. He’d never liked that Sterling had turned him down the many times he’d asked her out. Never mind that it would have been unethical as her superior to hit on her. “You must have done something to make Jake Ramesly put in the effort, but he’s made you persona non grata for the entire news industry. No tabloid, newspaper, blog, publishing house, or anyone of any standing is going to publish your written word any time soon. Good luck, Sterling. You’re done.”
“You’re wrong,” Sterling breathed. He had to be. It just had to be Grange talking big because he was mad about the paper being shut down. Jake wouldn’t have gone through the trouble to see her blacklisted, would he? Surely it hadn’t been that big of a crime to write a few articles and publish some pictures?
Grange just laughed.
Sterling grabbed her crutches, hopping out of Grange’s office as his laughter followed her.
He had to be wrong. This was ridiculous. She had just been doing her job. Yes, Jake should be mad at her for lying and saying she was a flight attendant when she wasn’t. That she could understand. Yet, buying Dubious, firing her, shutting it down, blacklisting her? That was crazy. Just because he had a lot of money and was angry at her didn’t mean he had to destroy her livelihood.
