Page 66 of Nothing But the Truth

Lucy was not in the mood for a guessing game. “What is it?”

“They say there’s going to be a press conference about your company. Right now.”

“What?!”

Of all the remote possibilities, that one hadn’t even entered Lucy’s mind.

“Yes. It says, ‘Jonathan Jenkins, CEO of J&J Public, to give statement on harassment allegations. Stream live here.’ Oh! That’s the link to the video. I see...”

“Oh my god.” Lucy listened to her mother read the headline and navigate whatever website sent her news as her heart lurched up into her throat. A press conference? She needed to get back to her office immediately. “Mom, I have to go. Will you send me that link?”

“Sure. How do I...? Oh, it’s starting. They are showing the podium with all the microphones. Whoops! I shrunk it.”

“Mom! I’ve told you this before. It’s the icon with the arrow.”

Once she stopped driving, Lucy could easily search J&J press conference and find the video herself, but if it was livestreaming, she didn’t want to miss the beginning if she could help it. The fact that Jonathan was giving a press conference and not Joanna to say he had been fired left her sick with dread. She had a very strong feeling she knew what he was going to say.

She pulled into her building’s parking garage and heard a whoop then a ding! as her mother successfully sent the link and she received it.

“Did it go through?” Maryellen asked, her voice crackling as the phone signal ran into the concrete walls. The underground garage was notoriously reliable for cutting out service.

“Yes, thank you!” Lucy shouted. She pulled into a parking spot and the call dropped.

She threw herself from the car and hurried toward the elevator, desperate not to miss the show. She opened the link her mother sent, and her screen offered up a loading ring futilely circling around and around over a block of gray.

“No!” she growled.

She growled again when she got in the elevator and it stopped on the lobby floor instead of taking her all the way to the sixth and back to the safety of her own office. A man in a sharp suit waited to step inside, and over his shoulder Lucy saw a display that solved her problem of missing the show but left her stunned with nerves.

She didn’t need her phone to load the livestream because the press conference was happening live, right there in the building lobby.

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