Page 29 of Pride

I had plans for Emma Belmont.

And like a line of dominoes, I couldn’t stop it now. That first brick had already fallen. It was only a matter of time until her life came crashing down.

CHAPTER TEN

EMMA

Afew days later, I walked into the office feeling like a strange aura was following me. It was as if I had toilet paper stuck to my shoe or food on my face. I checked my reflection in the glass as I headed to my desk, and I looked fine, but I was getting the side-eye from way too many people for it to be a coincidence.

“Good morning, go-getter,” Dan said as I sat down and turned on my computer.

Go-getter?

He’d never called me that before.

Something was going on.

“What’s happened?” I replied, giving him a blank look that told him I wasn’t in the mood for bullshit today.

“What hasn’t happened.” Dan smirked, making my irritation rise at the fact that he wasn’t answering my question at all.

“I don’t know,” I stated plainly. “I’ve only just turned up. So how about you just tell me.”

Dan huffed through the smirk that was still painted on his smug face and said, “Touche, Emma. Touche.”

“Seriously, Daniel. Cut the crap and tell me.”

He clicked his mouse a few times, then swivelled his screen to face me, and when I saw what was on there, I had to resist the urge to grab my wicker paper basket off the floor and throw up.

S.K.A.M.

The Man.

The Legend.

The troll who likes to target vulnerable women...

My eyes scanned the article that was written underneath the damning headline as my pulse throbbed in my ears. An article that accused him of being a hypocrite and a bully. Saying that since the initial article with the review of his performance, he’d targeted me in an online campaign that made me fear for my life. That I was scared to leave the house and was seeking protection from the authorities. There were also direct quotes from the email he’d sent to me written in there.

‘Before today, I had no clue you even existed. After I’m finished with you, neither will anyone else.’

I hadn’t shown anyone that article. So either Mr Gold had hacked into my emails, or someone else had done it for him. But that wasn’t the worst part. At the bottom of the vile article was my name, printed in bold like I was proud of what I’d published. Anyone reading this would think I was trying to incite a media war with this guy, despite writing about how terrified I was. Yeah. So terrified that I was plastering it all over the internet and in every edition of our newspaper that’d gone out this morning. Only I hadn’t, had I?

And then it struck me.

That’s exactly what Gold wanted.

He was goading him. Forcing him to react so he could make it into a story for his paper. To get the attention of the bosses, thewider media, and anyone who could further his career. He didn’t care what this would do to me. He wanted to create a media circus. He did all this in my name without me knowing a damn thing about it.

The urge to crash through his door into his office and grab him, slam him up against the wall and take my anger out on his podgy, dour face was overwhelming. But I had to see if I’d received another email first. I needed to know what the fallout was. And sure enough, there was another one waiting for me in my inbox.

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Game on...

YOU STUPID FUCKING BITCH!