Chapter 4
My Hot Mess
Gale Fears
Secretary Sex Scandal with the “Most Eligible Bachelor” lawyer Gale Fears.
Ilooked at the big, bolded title and down to the article on the front page of the newspaper. I still couldn’t believe that this was really happening. I cast another look towards Hillary, who was sitting on a chair outside the ICU, rather far away from me. She hadn’t said a single word to me since this news broke out. I had no idea what she was thinking or what she was going through. Her face had been strangely expressionless. As much as she didn’t want to talk to me, I had to have a discussion with her. This situation needed to be controlled. We had to get our stories straight, and I had to prepare her for the paparazzi that would follow her and make her life difficult.
Of course, another thing that bothered me, but that I couldn’t discuss with anyone, was the identity of the person who leaked the pictures. Some of the pictures were taken at the office when Hillary and I had been working together. I didn’t doubt that this was someone I knew. But who?
My phone rang again, and I sighed. It had been ringing non-stop for the past half hour and I had been avoiding it. I finally picked it up and said, “Hello?”
“What is this that I am hearing about,” my father’s voice echoed on the other side. “You? With your secretary? I knew something was going on when I walked in the other day! I knew it!”
“Dad, just listen—" I said, but he rambled on.
“This is highly unprofessional! What will everyone think? You have ruined the reputation of my firm! A reputation that took me all my life to build! I am highly disappointed in you! You are to terminate this relationship immediately! I don’t know what you are hoping to achieve with this, but it ends now. Your mother can’t stop crying, and I have been getting calls from all my friends asking if this is true! Sleeping with your secretary? Seriously, Gale? I would rather you had slept with a prostitute! At least it wouldn’t raise questions about our business ethics!” my father shouted. “I want this mess sorted. I want this mess gone, and I want you to go on record and state that this was a mistake, and it will never happen again. I want you to blame the girl, and I want her out of this company!”
“Dad, I can’t do that-” Only the dial tone heard me; my father ended the call. My hand clenched around my phone, and I felt a wave of anger running through me. I cast a gaze towards her, but I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t fire her, and I could hardly put the blame on her. I was certain my father was going around telling people that she seduced me, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I had to do something about this.
“Gale,” I heard Daniel’s voice as he walked towards me.
“Daniel, thank you for coming,” I said, taking his hand and shaking it. “You heard?”
“Of course I did,” he said, sitting next to me.“Everyone did.”
“I need you to find out who is behind this,” I said. “This is obviously someone who works for me. I don’t have anyone that I can trust anymore. I need you to handle this for me.”
Daniel nodded and said, “I will see what I can do. I have a few highly discreet private investigators who can handle this. Don’t worry about this.”
“And I need your help doing damage control,” I said. “The paparazzi are going to go crazy over her, uncovering everything they can about her life. She will be in the public eyes for everyone to judge and comment on. I need you to use your contacts in the media to limit the amount of speculation and information being spread about us. Especially about her.”
“Alright,” Daniel said. “I will see what I can do.”
I turned to look at her, sighing as I realized what a huge mess, we were both in.
