Page 78 of Nothing But the Truth

And it wasn’t over. The scandal was still unfolding; she didn’t know what would become of her promotion; she’d yelled at her mother twice, which was sure to have consequences. And then there was Adam.

She could not convince herself the investment was minimal and that if she never saw him again it would be no great loss. She wanted to see him again. She had wanted to see him again from the moment he made her that drink—she just hadn’t admitted it to herself. She had always believed someone like Caleb was her type: reserved, practical. She never saw herself with a motorcycle-riding, kiss-her-in-public-after-a-day charmer like Adam. But maybe she had never seen it because she hadn’t allowed herself to look.

What power the truth holds, she thought as she slipped her ears below the waterline. One day. Just one day of telling only the truth, and so much had changed. She listened to her heart beat a slow wha-whomp under the hot pool like it was saying I told you so. So much had been held back or held in place just because she was dishonest: With others, with the world. With herself.

Change was never easy, but her day of honesty set things in motion that had needed to move for a long, long time.

She took quiet inventory of her to-do list for the day as she stared at the ceiling.

1. Lock down Lily Chu.

2. Secure promotion.

3. Gracefully ascend into the divine decade of her thirties.

4. Have one hell of a birthday bash on a rooftop in downtown L.A. where her boyfriend would finally propose to her.

She’d signed Lily Chu with everything but the actual signature, which, pending whatever happened with the rest of the list, was a huge deal. She couldn’t say much about securing her promotion other than she knew that Joanna was fighting for her. And despite the layers upon layers of drama and sometimes getting burned by the fires she was constantly putting out, she loved her job. Her big day of honesty had assured her of that. She had done nothing remotely resembling graceful all day other than indulging in her hot bath, but that wasn’t too surprising, all things considered. Perhaps the biggest change, and maybe the most unexpected, was that she was single. But the fact that marriage hadn’t been the first item on her list told her where it ranked in her priorities. Granted, she’d made that list in chronological order of her day, but even if it was out of order, she wouldn’t have put her relationship above her career, and that told her everything she needed to know about her decision to end things with Caleb.

She marveled at how she started the day with such high aspirations, a clear path, and by late afternoon, so much of it had diverged.

The truth had changed her life.

She finished her bath, relaxed and pruned like she hoped, and curled on her bed in her bathrobe. As a gift to herself, she switched her phone to silent and closed her eyes.

When she woke in her dark bedroom refreshed but disoriented, she realized she had an hour to make it to her party.

She grabbed her phone with that just-woke-up panicky urge of needing to know if she received any messages while she slept and saw she had indeed missed many messages, but one stuck out.

Chase McMillan had texted her two minutes earlier.

I want to be on the right side,his message said above a link to the Lakers’ Twitter account.

Intrigued, Lucy clicked the link and watched her app load a live video of a long table with a microphone and a backdrop behind it dotted in NBA logos like a monogrammed handbag. Shawn Stevens sat at the table, his massive shoulders hunched forward as he leaned toward the microphone. Off-screen cameras clicked and flashed, punctuating the dull murmur of questions coming from the crowd and Shawn’s deep baritone responses.

Lucy frowned, having no idea why Chase sent her a link to the pregame press conference.

She watched Shawn give a few answers that could use some polish, in her professional opinion, but he was a rookie and still learning how to present himself publicly. When he took his final question, Lucy was about to text Chase, Why am I watching this?, but something at the corner of the screen caught her eye.

Shawn stood, unfolding himself from the chair, and out of nowhere, Chase came rushing into the shot, still wearing his suit from the office and flushed in the face.

Lucy almost dropped her phone.

Shawn backed up out of the way, not having much room to move with the monogrammed wall right behind him, and Chase dove on the microphone.

“Wait! Wait just one more second; I have something to add,” Chase blurted. His tie swung forward, and he gripped the little microphone stand tightly enough to turn his hands white. His face flushed all over again, as if he suddenly realized he had an audience staring at him.

Lucy wondered if she was still asleep and it was all a dream.

“Hi,” Chase went on. “I’m probably going to get fired over this, but I don’t know how else I’ll get a platform this big. My name is Chase McMillan, and I work at J&J Public. I want to go on record and say the allegations against CEO Jonathan Jenkins that came out today are all true, and I fully support the women coming forward. I should have spoken up much earlier, and I’m truly sorry if my silence has hurt anyone. You all deserve better.” He paused and stared out at what had to be a room full of shocked, gaping faces. “That’s, um... That’s what I wanted to say. Thanks.”

He gave the camera one last horrified look and dashed off-screen.

Shawn still stood behind the chair, hands raised like he might get run over for being in the way. “Gotta love live TV,” he said with a chuckle.

A few more cameras clicked, reporters murmured in confusion, and then the screen cut to a silent image of the Lakers logo with Please stand by scrawled across the bottom.

A full, sincere laugh burst from Lucy’s lips. She wasn’t sure it was an appropriate reaction, but it was an honest one.

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