This fortified Emery’s impression of Cain’s mom as a busybody, which didn’t ease her mind. “What did you tell her?”
“That you’re a wonderful person.”
“Despite the video.”
“That had to be what she was getting at, yes.”
After how Cain had behaved, Emery couldn’t believe she was the one who could be considered unsuitable, but she knew she’d probably face this with almost any guy she dated in the future. Modern feminism or not, fair or not, her reputation had been ruined.
Cain was so different from Ethan, and yet she saw a commonality—a vindictive streak in them both. After what she’d been through with Ethan, she definitely planned to steer clear of Cain. “Actually, she doesn’t have anything to worry about. I have no romantic interest in her son. We grabbed a quick bite to eat—but only as friends. We went to high school together.”
Susan rolled her eyes. “If he’s anything like his mother, I can see why you wouldn’t be overly excited about him. Margie thinks she’s better than everyone else. And he’s just as special, of course. Like I said, I haven’t had a lot of contact with her, but whenever I do, it seems she’s singing his praises. Is he really that great?”
Emery’s opinion of Cain was decidedly less flattering than his mother’s. “He has an interesting job,” she said, trying to avoid making a statement either way.
“That bad, huh?” she said with a laugh.
Emery couldn’t help laughing with her. “Yeah, that bad.”
“What does he do that’s so interesting?”
She started to explain how he dived into water tanks to suck up the sediment, but her phone buzzed, and when she glanced down, Caller ID showed KQLA.
They must’ve been served with the lawsuit. She couldn’t think of any other reason they’d contact her right now. No doubt management would be angry and shocked...
She told herself she shouldn’t answer it, but she couldn’t resist. Her curiosity was too great, and the only way to ascertain how things might go was to hear what they had to say. “Can you excuse me?” she said. “I can’t miss this call.”
She wasn’t sure she even gave Susan the chance to respond. She pressed Talk as she hurried out the back way and into the alley, where she could have some privacy. “Hello?”
“Emery, this is Heidi.”
She could hear the tension in her former producer’s voice. They must’ve been served, all right. “What can I do for you?”
“There must be some misunderstanding here.”
It was chilly, and Emery hadn’t grabbed her coat, but she could scarcely feel the cold. “What kind of misunderstanding?”
“The reason we had to let you go has nothing to do with the video that showed up online.”
Showed up online? Emery made a noise of disgust. “Heidi, nothing just shows up online. Someone has to put it there. Ethan loaded that video on a popular revenge porn site and then emailed a link from a fake email account to every local and national news station he could think of. This was a cyberattack, and cyberattacks are illegal.”
“He claims he didn’t do it, and there’s no way to prove he did, so how are we supposed to know who to believe?” she asked defensively.
“Common sense?”
“That’s between the two of you. We let you go because the chemistry between you and Ethan wasn’t right anymore, and you know how important it is for the two major anchors of any newscast to have a certain...rapport on camera. That’s part of what creates viewer loyalty.”
“You think viewer loyalty has been improved with me gone?” Emery asked.
“If we hadn’t removed you, we would’ve received complaints. And we’re still working on your replacement, so we’re in a building stage. But you have no right to sue us,” she insisted. “That’s my point. You were no longer the right person for the job, and we should have the right to make that decision.”
“I was doing an excellent job,” she argued. “There’s no way you can say I wasn’t. I was never late, I never missed a broadcast and I never received any disciplinary action. I worked hard and did everything I could to be a great anchor—and our ratings were better than ever.”
“It just wasn’t working between you and Ethan anymore. Besides, it wasn’t just my decision. There was general agreement around here.”
She sounded as though she was trying to convince herself of that. “I don’t believe it happened the way you’re trying to portray it, Heidi. I believe you’ve wanted to date Ethan for a long time and got jealous when we started seeing each other. Then he posted that video, and you saw it as your chance to get rid of me for good. But even if Ethan was interested in you, why would you ever want him? You’ve seen what he did to me. If you think you can trust a man like that, you’re mistaken.”
“I don’t want to date Ethan,” she said.
Emery knew better. She could not have mistaken the dirty looks she’d received once she and Ethan got together, nor the adoring looks Heidi had lavished on him. “Even Ethan knows how you feel about him. And he uses that to his advantage and laughs about it behind your back. I hate to be unkind—I know it can’t feel good to hear that—but it’s true.”
Silence.
“Aren’t you happy you decided to hire a guy like that back?” Emery asked.
“Just drop the suit,” Heidi snapped, and disconnected.
Emery was shaking when she let the hand holding her phone drop from her ear. It was difficult to believe she could win a suit against her former employer. They had so much more money and power and access to good lawyers. From what she could tell, slapping them with a lawsuit had acted like a whack to a beehive. The internal buzzing that it had started was probably quickly escalating into a deafening roar as they closed ranks and gathered all their firepower for the fight ahead.
Before this thing
