Page 30 of I Need You to Read This
She shakes her head.
“Your first Dear Constance letter has been viewed more than a hundred thousand times since yesterday. This puts it in the top five articles on the whole website. It’s being shared with people in countries all around the world.”
“Wow, that’s great.”
“Congratulations, Alex. You’ve done a remarkable job with the first column. Already well on your way to making your mark at theHerald.” He breaks into a rare grin. He’s truly a handsome man. She wonders if he is able to lure women in with that smile.
“Thank you, sir,” she says uncomfortably.
“Are you all right, Alex?” He studies her. “You don’t lookparticularly pleased. I would think this would be a relief to you.” The truth is that Alex doesn’t feel relieved. She feels exposed. Between the strange threatening letters and Howard’s erratic behavior, and now Lucy quivering under her desk, this job is causing her more stress than she thought possible when she signed on.
But she shakes the frown from her face. “I’m thrilled. Really. I’m just worried about keeping it up.” She looks him in the eyes deliberately as she continues. “I care so much about Francis’s legacy. I want to do right by her.”
He gives her a tight smile. “If your next letter is anything like your first, I don’t think that’s a worry. Off to a great start, Alex. Francis would be proud.”
In her peripheral lower vision, she can see Lucy’s hands clasped around her legs. Her tights today are printed with little multicolored stars. She is so young. So vulnerable. Alex looks back across her desk at Howard, her heart pounding, wondering suddenly if it is possible that Lucy’s fear and Howard’s affair are connected.
“Thank you for giving me the opportunity,” Alex says. “I know so many women weren’t so lucky.”
“Well, I’ll leave you to it.” Howard slaps his thighs and stands up. “Oh, and Alex, take some time to relish this success. You don’t need to burn the candle at both ends.” He nods at the two coffee cups sitting on top of her desk. Alex flinches. “It’s important to have you well rested. Francis always said that nothing good comes from staying late.”
Alex looks at him, alarmed, but she doesn’t have time to dissect that last comment. As soon as the door closes behind him, Lucy lets out a sob.
TWENTY-SEVEN
“Lucy! Oh my God. What’s wrong?” Alex ducks down, kneeling next to her assistant. But Lucy’s face is buried in her knees. Her shoulders quiver. “Please tell me.”
“I’m sorry, Alex,” she sniffles. “I know I must seem insane.”
“No. You just seem upset. I want to know what’s going on. Lucy, what happened between you and Howard?”
“Nothing, I—” Lucy finally looks up, her face swollen from crying. Trails of gray mascara cling to her cheeks. Lucy doesn’t just look upset, she looks terrified.
“What is it?” Alex asks, a knot forming in her stomach. She reaches out and puts her hand awkwardly on her shoulder. “Please, you can tell me.”
Lucy pulls herself out of the cavity and stands up, looking to make sure the door is shut. She turns back to Alex and says nearly in a whisper, “It’s just that Howard Demetri isn’t the great guy you might think he is.”
“In what way?” Alex asks. She thinks about the angry phone call and the clenched fist she saw through the crack in the blinds. The weaving drunk Howard she ran into in the hallway at night. There was also what Tom told her about the woman.
Lucy leans forward, her eyes looking impossibly large and round. “He has another side to him, one that is—” She glances once more atthe door, her face twisted in fear. She lowers her voice. “Dangerous. For women, you know?”
A shiver starts in the back of Alex’s skull and spreads up through her hair. Could it be true? But she knows that of course it could be. Look at all of the powerful men who by all accounts seemed fine, even like exemplary leaders, but who were predators in secret. Is there anything to say that Howard Demetri couldn’t be one of them?
“What has he done?” Alex asks, a sinking feeling in her chest.
Lucy’s voice is so quiet Alex has to lean over her desk to hear it. “He came to visit me, down in the mailroom. He… made a pass at me. I didn’t feel like I could turn him down, Alex. There’s no one down there, you know? He said I would lose my job.”
Alex realizes she’s been holding her breath. She slowly releases it. “That’s so terrible. To feel threatened at work. I’m so sorry, Lucy, I had no idea.” But maybe she is being naive. It happens all the time like this, doesn’t it? Powerful men taking advantage.
“I’m not the only one,” Lucy says darkly. She’s stopped crying now but her voice is still raw. “There was another girl in the mailroom, Veronica. Howard would go down there and pay her visits when she was all alone. This was a while ago, back when I was new here. Before I knew.”
“What happened to her? Is she okay?” Alex can feel Lucy’s fear.
“I don’t know. Only a week or two later she didn’t show up to work. No one knows where she went.”
“That’s too much for anyone to have to go through. I am so sorry, Lucy. There has to be something we can do.”
A sob escapes Lucy’s throat. “Oh God, please do not tell anyone about this. It would ruin me. I can’t lose this job.” Alex is alarmed by the outburst. She goes around her desk and puts an arm around Lucy’s small shoulders.
