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And with that, he turned around and disappeared into his shop. His refusal to talk all but confirmed Olivia’s guess.

Back in the car, I called Graham before we even left Randy’s lot.

“It was Elaine,” I said when he answered.

“What?”

“She’s the one who made the Facebook post. It was her.”

“Elaine,” he whispered. There was a long pause before he asked, “How do you know?”

“Your daughter figured it out,” I said, glancing over at Olivia in the passenger seat. “She nearly got it out of the admin of Concerned Citizens of Woodvale.”

“Wow, really?”

“She told him she was his worst nightmare,” I said, making Olivia laugh at herself beside me. “This girl is going to be a kickass investigative reporter someday. She’s been conducting interviews, and she almost brought Xander to his knees.”

“Glad I’m not the only grown man she can threaten,” Graham said, letting out a low whistle. “Okay, so what are you going to do with this information?”

“I don’t know. I really want to confront her, Graham.”

He sighed. “Well, I’m not going to stop you. Just be careful that you don’t blow this up any further. Tread carefully.”

I almost gave him a “Yes, sir,” but his daughter was sitting right next to me, so I stopped myself. Instead, I asked, “How’s your first day on the job hunt going?”

He groaned. “I just set up my LinkedIn profile. Kill me now.”

I grinned, staring down at the hem of my black pencil skirt beneath the steering wheel. “I’m already missing you being in the same building as me. Even if we weren’t in the same room, it was just comforting to know you were there.”

“Maybe we could be in the same building tonight,” he said, his tone suddenly playful. “With... dinner.”

I blinked. “Graham, is that your dorky way of asking me on a date?”

“I’m sorry,” he said, laughing at himself. “I’m not very good at this. But yes, I would like to take you out to dinner tonight.”

Olivia was shaking her head beside me, but she still wore a grin on her face, clearly catching bits and pieces of her dad’s side of the conversation.

“That would be perfect,” I said, deciding at the last second to add the risky but innocent-sounding, “Wear a tie.”

Graham choked out a chuckle. “Okay, I will.”

After we hung up, I tried not to giggle like a high schooler whose crush asked her to prom. I put the car in drive, acutely aware of Olivia’s eyes on me from the passenger seat.

“This is going to sound cheesy, but I think you’re really good for my dad,” she said.

I glanced over at her, my heart suddenly feeling full in an entirely new way. “Oh, Olivia, your dad is so good for me, too. He’s such a sweet and caring man.”

She rolled her eyes, but a half-smile broke through. “Yeah. Sounds about right.”

This felt like she was giving me her blessing. I had Olivia’s approval to date her dad, and that mattered to me more than I’d realized. A lump formed in my throat, but I swallowed it down, forcing myself to be cool about this.

Internally, I was screaming with joy.

Back at the studio, I told Olivia I wanted to approach Elaine alone, and she seemed to understand. I found the woman in the breakroom with a book and a Snickers bar. When she saw me walk in, she straightened in her seat, her expression already looking a little shifty.

“Morning, Elaine,” I said, making my way over. I sat down across from her and folded my hands on the table, cutting right to the chase. “Is there anything you need to tell me?”

She swallowed a bite of chocolate. “No?”

A silence settled between us as I waited for her to reconsider her answer. I wasn’t angry or confrontational. I just looked at her with a gentle smile, trying to put her at ease so she’d be more likely to tell the truth.

But she was going to need a little persuasion.

“Elaine, were you... upset about the interns getting switched around at the beginning of summer to accommodate Olivia?”

“Upset?” She closed her book. “No. I mean, I wasn’t upset. ”

“But it bothered you a little.”

She blinked. “Well, it just gave me a lot of extra work to do, and you know, everything was already put in place. Graham had no idea how much I had to do behind the scenes to make that work. He didn’t even notice. Or apologize.”

“Why didn’t you speak up?”

Elaine went quiet, her eyes fixed on the table in front of her.

“Is there something else bothering you?”

She didn’t answer at first. Then, very softly, she said, “I just often feel like people around here don’t even notice me. I’m an afterthought.”

“What do you mean?”

Finally, she looked straight into my eyes. “How was your birthday party?”

I blinked, remembering that a lot of my co-workers were in the Gardners’ backyard that night, but Elaine wasn’t one of them. “I wasn’t in charge of the invites. It was a surprise party.”

“Oh.” She glanced down again. “I didn’t know. I just heard the camera crew talking about it on Monday. And I thought... man, even the camera guys were there, and not me?”

I knew Meghan wouldn’t have excluded anyone on purpose—she just didn’t really know Elaine. But maybe that wasn’t entirely her fault. Elaine always kept her head down, hair in her face, never looking like she wanted to be part of the conversation.

Maybe I’d misunderstood shyness for standoffishness. But that still didn’t make her actions acceptable.

I watched her flick the corners of the pages in her book with her thumb. “Is that why you made that post?” I quietly asked.

She looked up. “What post?”

“The one that resulted in Graham losing his job.”

Elaine licked her lips, her face rapidly turning red. “That wasn’t me. If someone’s saying it was me, that’s not true. Or I could’ve been hacked or something.”

I didn’t believe her. Not for a second. But something about the desperation in her voice and the way her eyes darted around made me pause. She had shame written all over her face. And for just a second, I felt a flicker of empathy for this woman who clearly didn’t think very highly of herself.

“I’m so glad it wasn’t you,” I said with a soft smile. “That would’ve just broken my heart, because you’re probably the sweetest person around here.”

I spoke those words with the exact tone my mother used when she said “Well, bless your heart” to someone she didn’t like.

Elaine didn’t say another word, and neither did I.

I didn’t forgive her, and I certainly wouldn’t forget. However, I wouldn’t be the reason she lost her job. Maybe karma would catch up with her one day, but I didn’t want anything to do with it.

Standing up from the table, I smoothed the front of my skirt before walking away.

The corners of my lips turned upward in a smile with the knowledge that Graham would be proud of how I’d handled this.

All I could think about was the horrified look on his face when I’d said I wanted to extort Noah Sherman.

Letting Elaine stew in her own guilt gave me just a little taste of justice without the fallout. She knew I knew. And that was enough.