Page 73 of Nothing But the Truth

Oliver snorted. “Most people will find a way to disappoint you, no matter how much you want them not to. So what’s going on? Joanna sounded pretty confident up there for what went down in the lobby. Is there something she’s not saying?” He eyed her with the same glinting temptation as he did when she earlier asked for his help testing her theory that she couldn’t lie. He knew there was more to the story, and he knew Lucy would have to tell him if he asked.

She glared at him and nodded at her door. “Come to my office.”

“Ooh, there is a secret,” he quietly cheered behind her.

When they arrived, she shut her door and figured she could kill two birds with one stone.

She reached for her phone and saw a staggering number of messages and missed calls. After the press conference, she had put it on silent and killed the vibration so her hand wouldn’t go numb. She had messages from her contacts at every publication she worked with: Vanity Fair, Variety, Rolling Stone, People, the Los Angeles Times, everyone asking for an update and a call. She was usually the one begging for their attention to get her clients in their pages, and they were absolutely bombarding her.

She bypassed all the notifications and texts to dial instead. Oliver suspiciously watched her as he made himself comfortable in her chair.

“Hello?” Annie answered sounding nervous and relived at once.

“Hi—”

“Who’s that?” a deep voice cut in. “Another reporter?”

There was a shuffle like Annie put her hand over the phone. Her voice shrank away to a muffle.

“It’s fine, Dad. It’s Lucy from work. I want to talk to her.”

“Lucy? The one who—”

“Yes, Dad. It’s fine.”

The muted muffle disappeared, and Annie came back full volume. “Sorry. I’m at my parents’ house just in case someone put my address online or something. My dad is being a little overprotective.”

The thought of Annie feeling the need to hide irritated Lucy. How backward that the accuser was more at risk than the accused. At least Jonathan wasn’t still roosting in his office like nothing had happened.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

Annie let out a big breath. “As well as I can be, I guess. I’m getting a lot of phone calls.”

“You don’t have to answer any of them if you don’t want to.”

“I know. I answered one and started crying. Then my dad took the phone and yelled at someone from People.” She quietly laughed.

“If it was Vince Garret, he deserved it. I’ve worked with that guy, and he sucks.”

Annie laughed louder. “I don’t know who it was, but my dad let him have it.”

“Good.” She paused, searching for words to express her feelings. “Annie, I’m sorry for what Jonathan said at the press conference.”

A thick pause filled the line, and Lucy listened to Annie’s stuttered breath. They’d known the risk, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.

“What do you think is going to happen now?”

Oliver eyed Lucy like he was getting impatient listening to only her half of the conversation. She nodded at him, letting him know she was getting to the good part.

“Well, Joanna just briefed the company here at the office, and they’ve called an emergency board meeting to discuss what to do. Hopefully Joanna is going to be CEO by the end of the day.”

Oliver sat straight up, and Annie sucked in a sharp breath.

“What? How? After he publicly denied everything, we’ve got no chance—”

“We do have a chance. Joanna kept the written offer Jonathan gave me in his office this morning when he tried to bribe me. Monica is going to run a second story this afternoon exposing the evidence and invalidating Jonathan’s public denial.”

A grin spread across Lucy’s face, and Oliver’s mouth fell open. Annie remained quiet.

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