Chapter 5
Remorse
Hillary Beck
Four freaking days. For four days I had hidden my face from everyone. For four days I couldn’t meet anyone’s eyes. For four days I avoided talking to my own parents. I knew they knew. Even though they didn’t say anything, I knew they had seen the news. I had been reduced to a secretary who slept around to get her way. That’s all I was now.
That is how everyone looked at me. Erica had been going out of her way to keep the news away from me, but I knew what they would all be saying. The way people would be judging me and calling me a slut, a whore, and more. And there was nothing I could do. I mean, I did sleep with my boss.
Maybe if I wasn’t so desperate for money, I would have quit. After all, the very thought of going to the office and seeing the judgmental faces of everyone at work shook me. But I had to pay for my mom’s medical bills, and I needed this job. So, I returned to work, and the moment I entered, I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. As I passed by the corridor, I could hear the whispers and saw their disgust when they look at me.
“I can’t believe she actually had the audacity to come back,” I heard Mrs. Payne say as I walked towards my desk.
“I wonder if that’s how she got the job,” I heard a girl name Kathy whisper. “After all, there is nothing special about her. That’s the reason he hired her! Sleeping around with the boss, of all things!”
“That’s how women like her get by in life,” Joey, the gossip queen of the firm, whispered behind me. “She is just a slut, that’s all. They sleep around and get their way. I wonder how many other men she has slept with?”
I clenched my fists but kept my calm and sat down on the desk. Every newspaper, every TV channel, was filled with people trying to dig up my past. I didn’t know how things could get any worse.
The intercom on my desk buzzed and I Gale’s voice echo over the system, “Hillary, I need to see you in my office now.”
I heard people start to whisper again, and everyone watched me as I walked over to his office.
“Yes, Mr. Fears?” I asked.
“We need to talk,” he said, gesturing to the chair in front of him as he closed the door behind me. “You are well aware that someone has leaked pictures of us together. I wanted to assure you that I am doing my very best to resolve this.”
“Aren’t you a bit late?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Excuse me?” he asked.
“The damage is done,” I said. “What can you do now, all-powerful Mr. Fears, that can change anything? File cases of slander in the court? File cases for defamation? How many newspapers are you going to shut down? How many news agencies will you fight? How will combat what’s on social media?”
“Hillary—” he said, but I cut him off.
“I am not delusional, Mr. Fears,” I said softly. “I can’t afford to be. There is a mad man from my past, determined to ruin me. He is going after my parents to get to me. Everyone I love is in danger now. My grasp on reality is clear, and say what you want, there is nothing you can do. Even the almighty Mr. Fears is powerless now.”
He stood up and marched towards me, his intense gaze resting on my face. He looked me in the eye, his face only an inch away from mine.
“I am well aware of the situation you are in,” he said, his eyes boring into mine. “And I am here to help you. I will personally arrange a meeting with the police and get you protection. I offered you my help before, and my offer stands. I will get the police involved. I will do everything in my power to protect you from him.”
He rested his thumb under my chin and made me look up. His body was so close that I could almost feel his muscles pressing against me, and I could smell his familiar, musky scent that never failed to entice me. Despite all that had happened, my heartbeat picked up, and I felt my breathing hitch.
“No one is going to lay a hand on you or your family,” He said, his breath falling onto my lips. “I am going to keep you safe, both from the mad man who haunts you and from the press.”
“That doesn’t change the fact that my reputation is ruined,” I said. “Wherever I will go, the fact that I slept with my boss will follow me. People will think of me as the girl who used sex to climb the ladder. My success will never be viewed as my own, ever again.”
“I am sorry,” he said.
“You have nothing to apologize for,” I said, pulling myself away from him. “I always admit it when I make mistakes, Mr. Fears. And you were a mistake.”
Refusing to let him see my trembling body and tearing eyes, I turned around and walked away.
