Page 54

I didn’t answer Chase’s question—there was no time.

Instead, I took a deep, shaky breath and launched into our final segment like everything was fine.

I closed out the show with a lighthearted reminder about the upcoming Watermelon Festival, as if my entire career wasn’t suddenly dangling by a thread.

It was rough, but I made it through. And the second the cameras cut, I ripped off my lapel mic and stood up. “Graham and I were exposed,” I muttered to Chase, knowing he’d pass it on to Meghan pretty quickly.

I spun on my heel and walked straight off set, my flats smacking the tile with more force than I intended.

How many people had already seen? How many times had it been shared?

With my hand clutching my stomach like I might throw up, I burst through the studio doors and took off down the hallway in the direction of Graham’s office.

But I heard Xander’s voice echoing from the stairwell, and it stopped me in my tracks. I turned to see he had Isaiah cornered, and it didn’t sound like a friendly chat.

“I want every name,” Xander said. “Every single person you talked to about this.”

I approached him from behind as Isaiah stuttered and stumbled over his words.

“Spit it out, Napoleon,” Xander urged, motioning with his hand for Isaiah to hurry up.

I clutched his arm. “Xander. Enough,” I demanded, meeting his eyes. “You really think threatening an intern and calling him names is a good idea?”

Xander’s jaw tightened. “If you saw what was on Facebook today, you’d—”

“I saw,” I snapped, “but this isn’t the solution. You’re going to get yourself in trouble.”

He shook his head at me, but I ignored him, stepping closer to Isaiah. I rested my hand on his shoulder, forcing a smile. “Isaiah, honey, could you tell us who else you spoke to about what you saw? It would really help us get to the bottom of that post.”

Beside me, Xander scoffed and threw his hands up in exasperation. “You asked him the same damn thing I did, but you just wrapped it up with a sweet, southern bow.”

“Tone matters.” Turning back to Isaiah, I softened my expression. “Is there any way Marco, the WWTV producer, could have heard about this?”

Isaiah furrowed his brows. “I don’t even know him. And I don’t think Imani or Ezra would have told him, either.”

“Who the fuck are—”

I squeezed Xander’s arm to cut him off. “Who are those people, Isaiah?”

“The other interns I told. But that’s it. Just them and Xander.”

I nodded, processing this new information. “Okay. Did you tell anyone in your family?”

Isaiah swallowed. “No.”

“What about your uncle?” Xander asked.

He shook his head, “No. He’s in Florida.”

Taking a step back, I let my hand drop from Isaiah’s shoulder. I ran through the list of names of everyone who knew about the relationship: Olivia, Meghan, Xander, Chase, Isaiah, and these two other interns.

Whoever made that post had a personal vendetta against Graham or me. Or both of us. I couldn’t see an intern or one of their parents posting something like that.

Unless…

“Olivia’s mom,” I whispered.

“I didn’t tell Olivia,” Isaiah said, holding up his hands in innocence. He swallowed. “I swear.”

“I know you didn’t,” I said, shaking my head at him. “And it doesn’t matter, anyway. You’re not in trouble, Isaiah. I’m sorry Xander here cornered you.”

Isaiah gave a little nod, still looking like he wished he could melt through the floor. I turned, motioning for Xander to follow me as I made my way up the stairs toward Graham’s office.

That post wasn’t just a leak. It felt like an attack. Whoever made that post wanted to take Graham and me down. Would Andrea have any reason for that? From the way Graham spoke of her, she didn’t seem like a vindictive type, but what if she was holding some resentment toward him?

Xander fell into step beside me, and we made our way through the hall on the second floor in the direction of Graham’s office. “Who are you thinking is behind that post?”

“Marco, or Graham’s ex-wife,” I answered.

“Marco? Really?”

“He’s not very fond of Graham.”

“Okay, I could see him doing something to damage Graham’s career, but he wouldn’t drag your reputation down with it.

” As we passed a cardboard box overflowing with lost-and-found leftovers from the elementary kids, he reached in without even slowing down, pocketing a keychain flashlight. “What about Graham’s ex-wife?”

We heard footsteps around the corner, and a second later, Graham came into view, his daughter trailing behind him. My stomach fluttered. His suit jacket was gone, his sleeves were rolled up, and he scowled at Xander like he’d heard what he’d just said.

“What was that?”

Xander licked his lips. “Nothing.”

Graham turned his attention toward me and stepped closer, his face softening. “Are you okay?”

“No,” I answered, honestly. “Did you get a hold of Randy? The admin of the group?”

“He wasn’t in yet,” Graham said, loosening his tie. “But it doesn’t matter. That post has been shared and screenshotted and shared again. It’s out there.”

“We need to figure out who posted it,” I said, holding his gaze. “Whoever it was, they don’t like us very much.”

“I don’t care who it was.” He shrugged, a deep crease forming between his brows.

I wished the other two weren’t standing there with us so we could have an actual conversation without an audience, but we didn’t have that luxury at the moment.

He glanced away for half a second, like it hurt to hold eye contact.

And when his eyes found mine again, he said, “It doesn’t matter. It’s over, Jill.”

My heart dropped.

Xander let out a low, “Fuck.”

Graham’s head snapped toward him. “I meant the secrecy,” he spit out, like Xander’s reaction was uncalled for.

“Jesus, Dad,” Olivia muttered, scrolling on her phone. “I thought you were breaking up with her.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he told her, his voice even more raw and desperate than a moment ago. And then he turned to me, standing close enough that I needed to tilt my head back to look into his eyes. “I have to go deal with this.”

“How?”

“Emergency board meeting. I called it myself,” he said, searching my eyes for a reaction. I nodded, listening. “They already know. Someone forwarded Arthur Briggs the post while I was on the phone with him.”

A lot had happened in the last twenty minutes.

“What will you tell them, Graham?”

He rubbed his forehead as though he were trying to smooth out the worry etched there. “I have no idea. I want to come clean, but then again, denying it could protect you and your career. I could explain it away like Isaiah just misinterpreted—”

“No.” I shook my head, closing my eyes. “I don’t want you to lie. Whatever happens, happens.”

At that exact moment, Olivia looked up from her phone and said, “Whoever the anonymous OP is, they just said the CEO is probably the one who made Jill cry on-air.” She looked at me. “There’s like, almost a hundred comments.”

Graham shook his head, looking at me. “Don’t read them, ‘kay? Reading them isn’t going to help you at all.”

I had a feeling he’d already scrolled through them himself with Olivia, and some of the things being said about me weren’t kind. He was protecting me from them. “Okay,” I said, knowing I’d probably have a moment of weakness later and scroll through them anyway.

He shot Xander and Olivia a sideways glance like he suddenly wished they weren’t standing there. There was probably more we could say to each other, too, but these were the last two people in the world who wanted to hear us spill our feelings out loud.

Graham must have decided it didn’t matter anymore, because he stepped forward and placed a hand on my waist before leaning down to kiss me.

The kiss didn’t linger, but for the few seconds his lips were on mine, I felt the weight behind them— the fear, the frustration, the feeling like he was trying to tell me something he couldn’t say out loud. Not yet. Not here.

I wanted to say it, too. I hoped he could feel it in the way I kissed him back.

We pulled apart, finding Xander and Olivia facing away like they couldn’t bear to see us like this—each of them for their own reason.

Graham ran his fingers over his bottom lip like he was savoring that kiss. He opened his mouth to say something, but his phone buzzed in his pocket. We all watched him bring it to his ear. “Yeah, I’m on my way down there. See you in a second.”

When he hung up, he let out a long sigh and slipped the phone back into his pocket before wiping his hands on the front of his pants.

“Time to go face the music,” he said, glancing around at all of us with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

We stepped out of his way to let him through, all of us wishing him luck as he went down the hall toward the conference room.

I watched him go, wishing I could be in that board meeting with him.

I felt useless just standing there, hoping it would all work out.

My chest tightened when Graham turned the corner and disappeared from view. Xander let out a breath beside me. “Well,” he said, stretching. “That was a lot before nine a.m.”

“CEOs can’t get fired, can they?” Olivia asked, looking back and forth between the two of us. Xander and I exchanged a quick, uneasy look, neither of us sure how to answer.

Then, maybe trying to add some humor to the situation, Xander said, “Get ready to eat a lot of ramen, kid.”

I let out a sigh, covering my face with my hand. “Xander, you are the absolute worst,” I said, and he just smirked.

The truth was, if there really were hundreds of comments rolling in about this scandal, I didn’t see an outcome where we both kept our jobs. Someone had to take the fall.

And I knew in my gut that if one of us was going down for this, it would probably be Graham.