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“Yes?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” I lie again.
“Then the report is real. Simple. I have a great contact, just don’t ask who that person is.” She taps the side of her nose. “I need to use the restroom.” Sliding off her barstool, she grabs her cell.
As soon as she’s around the corner I follow her, but I get the shock of my life when she’s not inside the restroom but standing facing the wall at the end of the corridor where the restrooms are, so I hide myself and listen in.
“She’s just told me she thinks the report is fake.” She whisper-shouts to whoever is on the other end of the call.
Who is she talking to?
I edge myself a little closer.
“Don’t talk to me like that. My contact did a great job to make it look real.”
No, they didn’t, it was a terrible job.
“Okay, okay, calm down, I didn’t blow it. That dumb bitch believed me when I told her it wasn’t. She’s still going through with the interview next week.”
She pauses for a beat as if letting the person talk.
Laughing manically to whatever the person responds with, she then says, “Once we get her interview we can create another dozen or so headlines and articles to back it up. She’ll humanize the story, give a bit of legitimacy, then the readers will believe the others. Win win.” She nods her head. “Yeah. I agree. This was much harder than hacking phones. Let’s stick to that,” she says brightly as if it’s the most kosher thing in the world, when it’s not. It’s hideous.
They hack phones?
This is terrible and much more sinister than I realized. Julie is a snake and now I wish I had never met her. My hands are shaking, my mouth now completely dry.
“I’ll keep her sweet, we’ll get the story, and I’ll sell you lots of newspapers, Buzz.”
Bert, or Buzz as he’s widely known, is the editor ofThe Golden Telegraph.
Turns out he’s a snake too.
“I’m right, trust me. And I know it’s becoming harder and harder. Fucking internet,” Julie replies, spitting venom. “Since the invention of the fucking thing, I have struggled every day to get exclusive interviews and tell-alls. People share everything online first instead of selling their stories. It’s a fucking travesty. Oh, hang on, I have an alert on my cell.” Julie moves it away from her ear and must put it on speaker, though I can’t see with her back to me. She continues talking. “It’s Lexi, she said she got him.”
“Hacking phones of the rich and famous has never felt so good.” A masculine husky voice, which I am assuming is Buzz, fills the corridor, making me feel sick to my stomach.
Their morals are in the gutter.
“We’re clever, right?” Julie asks, chuckling away.
It’s horrible, evil, and downright wrong.
“It’s the only way to get the inside scoop these days and that’s why we do it all the time. Now, get your sweet ass back to my office and tell me all the ways you plan on ruining Daniel Hart and his firm’s reputation. Then draw up a plan for who is next in this boring-as-fuck city.”
“It’s a shame I never made a copy of that video I made to set Daniel up.” Julie kicks her foot against the wall in front of her.
“You’re a pro at this now. You just needed someone like me to show you how to play dirtier,” Buzz replies sinisterly.
Max showed me the video—the one she tried to use to extort his father and get back at Max with. And Daniel? He never said anything remotely close to what she claims. In fact, the whole time in the video, he made it crystal clear to Julie that she washis son’s girlfriend, that he had never strayed from his wife, and that he wasn’t the least bit interested in some desperate, two-bit hussy. Daniel’s words, not mine. I heard them on the video with my very own ears.
Daniel Hart is a loyal man. To his wife and his sons, and was dedicated to upholding the law.
“And that’s why I faked the crash report. I’ll finally get my revenge on the family for filing that injunction and getting me fired.”
Julie is not only twisted, she’s bitter, and while I wanted to seek the truth, she is willing to bend it into any way she wants to get her revenge.