“Yeah.” Memories flashed through my mind.How much dare I share? Do I really want him to lose all respect for me?“I took all the evidence and wrote a three-part hit piece. I tore that politician to shreds. I had the documents, after all. Proof of all the wrongdoing she’d been up to. Ironclad. Hell, I figured the prosecutors could use the roadmap I’d drawn to convict her of corruption and bribery.”
“But it wasn’t true.”
“Nope.” My gut clenched. “None of it. Not a single word. Everything I’d been presented had been fabricated—by some damn smartpeople.” I rubbed my forehead again. “I thought I was so smart. That I’d never be taken in. I followed all the rules—and still got hoodwinked.”
“That’s…shitty. You had to write a retraction, right?”
I cleared my throat. “The very first thing I had to do was explain myself to my editor. Worst conversation ever. She eviscerated me. And rightly so. Then yes, she sent me to my desk to write the biggest mea culpa ever. No excuses. UnequivocalI fucked up and every word I wrote was a lie. I wasn’t given even an inch of print to give my side of the story. No one was going to give a shit about me. Nor should they have. This was about almost ruining someone’s life.”
“You weren’t malicious. Hell, it sounds like you weren’t even sloppy.”
“Intentions don’t mean shit when you fuck up as badly as I did. I was looking for recognition. For someone to pat me on the back and acknowledge I was the best.”
“Obviously that didn’t happen.”
“Nope. Lawyers descended to sort out the mess. Cops even got involved because it looked like I’d intentionally attempted to cause damage.”
“Which you had.”
“From the outside? Yeah, that’s what it looked like. The paper wanted to cover their asses.”
Finn tilted his head. “They didn’t think to do thatbeforeshit went down?”
“My editor was the biggest check—and she took everything I showed her at face value—like I had. But she was responsible for a bunch of reporters. She trusted us to do our jobs. And I honestly thought I had.” I moved back to the couch and dropped. “I was blind.”
“Why?” His voice was quiet. “You seem like one of the most level-headed people I know. Cynical too—which is why I’d have thought you’d be more…questioning.”
“She really looked guilty. I mean, our lawyers struggled to find fault in the documents I’d been given. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it all look legit.”
“To what end?”
“That was what was so confusing. She was just one member of council. She wasn’t known for being a troublemaker, and she certainly hadn’t done anything controversial.”
“And yet….? I’m sensing a but.”
“You’d be right. She was about to block a major development project in her neighborhood. Big money was involved. Look, all levels of government are pushing for an increase in housing supply and rules are being bent—if not broken. She was about to speak out.”
Finn scratched his nose. “Sounds extreme. To go to those lengths—”
“His secondary motive was to take me down.”
“Okay, that you’ve got to explain.”
“I told you that I knew the guy.”
“From your old neighborhood.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” He held my gaze. “Just spit it out.”
“Apparently I rejected his advances.” I rubbed my scalp with my fingernails. “The thing is…I’m pretty sure I would remember if I’d done that. Because I was struggling with my sexuality with all the other crap going on in my life. I mean—” I grunted. “I have no memory of anything between this guy and me. Like none. Which makes me wonder if I was either truly that clueless or if this thing—whatever it was—only happened in his head.”
“Or he’s lying.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. “I don’t understand.”
“This is incredibly complicated. He wanted to take down the council member so a building project got approved.”
