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She didn’t drive, but there was a car they referred to as hers. Whenever he was going anywhere with her, my dad would take that car. If it was just him, he’d take his truck. But to help me out in this situation until I received the payout from my insurance company and had the chance to buy a new car, they loaned me hers.

And today, I was using it.

My sole goal was to head to the news station and convince Dale to reconsider his decision to pull me off the story. Over the days I’d been home, I attempted to do some research online and reviewed the notes and information both Yasmine and I had gathered in the time we had each been working on the story. While I had the chance to organize my thoughts and come up with a new plan of attack, I still needed to change his mind.

The moment I walked through the front door, I was greeted by several of my coworkers. They’d all asked how I was doing,wanting updates on my recovery. It was nice to be back, to be connecting with them again.

After I’d spent a few minutes with them, I returned to my task and moved toward Dale’s office.

When I knocked on the partially closed door to his office, he called out, “Yeah? Come in.”

I pushed the door open and stepped into the room, doing it with the uneven walk I now had with the boot on my foot. “Hi, Dale.”

“Alana. How are you?”

I nodded with a smile on my face. It was best to go in with a pleasant demeanor, if I hoped to persuade him at all. “Much better. Thank you for asking.”

“I didn’t expect to see you here today. Did we know you were coming back?”

“No. No, I’m due to go back to the doctor next week to have the stitches removed, and hopefully, I’ll be cleared to resume working at that time.”

Understanding seemed to dawn on his features. I had a feeling he finally realized the reason for my visit. “You want to talk about Annie Sanders and Yasmine.”

“I do,” I confirmed.

“I’m sorry, Alana, but I can’t allow you to continue on either,” he lamented.

The last thing I needed to do was fly off the handle like I wanted. Losing my cool and temper on Dale like I had with Rita wasn’t going to help me in this situation. So, I swallowed down the anger I could feel building inside me and took a few more steps toward his desk and kept my voice calm as I pleaded my case. “Please, Dale. I understand your position, and I truly appreciate your desire to make a decision that’ll keep me safe in this scenario. But I didn’t come into this profession expecting it would always be rainbows and sunshine. I understand the risk,and I’m more than prepared to accept it. This is too important to just walk away from.”

“I get it,” he assured me. “Yasmine aside, the Sanders story is a big one. Trust me, I’m not exactly thrilled that we’re walking away from what would be close to the biggest story we’ve ever reported on. And for you, for your career, a story like this is huge. So, I understand why you want to pursue it. But Yasmine hasn’t recovered, and Rita told me about the note you found with Yasmine’s things. There’s not a chance I can pretend she didn’t share that information with me.”

My hands gripped the back of the chair sitting on the opposite side of his desk, and I leaned my weight into it. “I’m not asking you to forget that. But there has to be a way I can continue this. I can’t just give up. We don’t do that, not even when things get dangerous. Why would this time be any different?”

If Dale had been trying to exercise patience with me when I first arrived, what happened next proved that was no longer the case. “It’s not up for debate, Alana. I’ve made a decision, and it’s final.”

“But—”

“There’s nothing else to say,” he clipped. “You don’t have a choice here. Now, we’re happy to have you back to your normal reporting activities as soon as it’s cleared with your doctor, but you will not be returning to covering the Annie Sanders case. Since there was no official story on Yasmine, there’s nothing for me to deny there other than to tell you that it is not a story we’ll be handling. We’re leaving this in the hands of the authorities. I need you to confirm that’s understood.”

I dropped my chin, my eyes landing on my knuckles where my fingers were gripping the chair. It took every ounce of strength I had to bite my tongue to not allow the anger and bitterness I felt to rush forward and spill out of me. We’d never backed down from a story. Never. This made no sense.

“Alana?” he called when I took too long to respond.

Lifting my gaze to meet his, I rasped, “I understand.”

He returned a firm nod. “Good. Is there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

I shook my head. “No.”

“Okay. Well, we’ll look forward to having you back here after you get your clearance from the doctor.”

This was the worst. I felt so powerless.

I swallowed down the shame I felt for having screwed this up to begin with and considered myself dismissed. “Thank you for speaking with me.”

Without another word, I turned and walked out of his office. And on my way back to the front door, I tried not to let my many emotions consume me. Anger, bitterness, shame, and disgust—they all piled on me. But when it all boiled down, when I considered why exactly I felt everything that I did, I realized there was only one reason for it.

I was working for a network that wasn’t going to allow me to do the thing that I was called to do. I wasn’t going to be able to seek the truth and to uncover secrets. I had no control.

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