Use option three.
Then I sent it.
The apartment stayed silent around me.
I stood in the kitchen, waiting for the right time to call Claire.
I kept waiting.
Twenty
Savannah
Richard had printed the headline.
Not the article. Only the headline, enlarged across a single sheet of paper and placed in the center of the conference table.
SAVANNAH BROOKS ADMITS SHE HURT MYSTERY WOMAN
Seven identical copies waited in front of the seven chairs.
“I’ve seen it,” I said.
Richard folded his hands.
“I wanted everyone looking at the same problem.”
Rachel turned her copy facedown.
Sophie had covered hers in notes, then crossed out so many of them that the paper had started to tear.
The conference room occupied the top floor of the label’s New York office. Glass walls. Long table. Expensive view. No visible place to hide from a difficult conversation.
Richard sat at one end.
I sat at the other.
Either symbolism or poor planning.
Two lawyers had joined us, along with Brent from marketing, who had spoken to me at least twenty times and still brought me coffee.
I did not drink coffee.
I moved the cup toward Rachel.
She accepted it without comment.
“We need to decide what happens next,” Richard said.
“Nothing.”
“That is not an option.”
“It was one of Sophie’s options.”
Sophie glanced at me.
“Technically, my option contained five words.”
