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“Everyone would see right through it,” Eric said, looking exasperated. “It would probably make things worse.”
A grin tugged at the corner of Ben’s lips.
“That’s why I wasn’t planning on listening to them. I knew I gathered the right people for this crisis.” He looked at us and a warm, glowy feeling of pride spread through me.
Ben was strict, but not vindictive. It took me some time to realize that, of course. I spent most of my first two weeks resenting him and, honestly, not thinking I’d be too sad if he just woke up and left OVT to move to a deserted island.
I respected it was his company and his standards, but I let my desire to get ahead without working for it get the best of me. Now that I was reminded of my previous boss, I had realized how extremely fortunate I was to have Ben as my boss now. He knew what he wanted; he knew how to get it, and he just needed you to put your trust in him so the team could get the work done.
And I was going to deny that having my super hot boss want to do extremely dirty things to me made me feel untouchable.
“We shouldn’t lean on distractions and ignore Olson’s attacks.” I needed to get my brain back on track before it started thinking about those dirty things. “My first day here, you said ignoring an issue is only a short-term solution that would only come back to bite us in the future. It applies here, too.”
I flashed a smile at Ben, who was looking at me intensely.
“Mr. Oviatt also said that an excellent news source admits when they are wrong,” Lucy brought up, leaning forward as she was determined to come up with a solution—as we all were. “But in this case, we didn’t report anything wrong. We are being attacked for revealing the truth.”
I cleared my throat as an idea suddenly popped into my head. It came to me so out of the blue that it burst out of my mouth.
“We could invite him for an interview!” My voice wasmuchlouder than I anticipated and Ben, Eric, and Lucy all jumped a bit, startled. “Yes, we could properly invite Jebediah Olson for a tell-all interview that would clear the air once and for all.”
Ben thought for a second. He didn’t look nearly as excited as I felt. Which was fair. It was a risky move, to be honest.
“But wouldn’t that mean that Olson would be walking into his own trap? We know the facts about his seemingly pardoned crimes, and he knows that to be true as well, of course. Why would he accept our interview invitation?” Honestly, Ben made a very good point.
“Because that man hates nothing more than his reputation to be stained.” I stood up, suddenly full of energy, and joined Eric by the windows. “If we angle our announcement correctly, it would both be a polite invitation and a subtle jab at how he’s playing dirty. It would cause some of his critics and supporters to speak up if he ignored our request, which would hopefully slow down his attempt at raking in more supporters.”
“He can dish it, but he can’t take it,” Eric summarized perfectly, eyes twinkling at the idea.
“And once we get Olson on our home turf, we would have a bigger hand on the playing field. We could expose his lies and save OVT’s reputation!” I said, staring fiercely at Olson’s frozen frame. “And maybe, just maybe, we could stop him from hurting more people.” My voice dropped to a whisper as I recalled some of the ghastly things he had done. I couldn’t even imagine what would happen if he were the fucking President.
A silence falls upon the room once more, every single one of them going over the scenario.
Finally, Lucy spoke up.
“But who would do the interview? I don’t mean to sound like I’m running away, but I don’t think I could ever face that much pressure.”
“Ben should do it.” The booming voice from the meeting room door made us all jump a mile. We had been so lost in planning, we didn’t even notice that legendary talk show host, Johnson DuPont had joined our little party planning committee. He was otherwise known as–
“Dad?” Ben’s voice was unusually shaky in the presence of his overwhelming father. “What are you doing here?”
Johnson merely walked forward, the sound of his walking stick heavy against the carpeted floors. His face morphed into disappointment, his dark green eyes squinting directly at his son. He looked around the room and stared us down one by one, and when he got to me, I mustered up all of my willpower to not quake in fear in front of the living legend himself. I expected myself to fangirl at Johnson DuPont’s presence. And I supposed my overwhelming need to not screw up in front of him was a type of fangirling.
Johnson DuPont was known for his countless iconic interviews, ranging from all the members of The Beatles, every U.S. president, and countless foreign leaders. But he was also known for his merciless work ethic. I wondered where Ben got it from. Though he was older now, his presence still captured a room, making every single one of us freeze in place.
He gazed at his son with piercing eyes.
“What kind of hellhole have you broughtmycompany to, Benjamin?”
Ben
I hated going down to this part of the executive floor. It wasn’t dark or dingy, it was just haunted, especially seeing my father’s back in front of me as he walked down the hallway like he did a million times before—like he had when I was still a little boy. Even then, I always understood that when I was in this exact same position, I was set for another grueling conversation with my father, but this time, it was different. As I looked back at the conference room, Eric looked from the door with anxiety. What was bothering me more was Olivia was walking alongside me on my left, and I had never seen her more terrified in her life.
“Have you changed the cleaning agency again, Benjamin? These floors don’t sparkle like they used to,” my father commented.
Whenever his stern voice equally matched his overwhelming presence, it always felt like the world was shaking. Which was why I completely understood Olivia flinching when he talked. Every step we took down the hallway, his walking stick echoed loudly through the walls, and it made my heart beat faster with each vibrating thud. Dad never really was a gentle walker.
I wanted nothing more than to step aside and take Olivia away from here. She didn’t need to be part of what was about to come. We could just turn left down the hallway and run straight to the elevator. Then we could get in my car and drive away from here. Sometimes, I wished it was that simple. Sometimes, I wished I had a simpler life in general. I never really felt like I experienced anything “normal” ever since I graduated. It was always just work hour after work hour. One meeting onto the next; a resolved crisis made place for another one. It was a relentless downpour of work, and I never allowed it to get the best of me, but some emotions often found themselves resurfacing every single time I was near my father.
