Sara gave me a perplexed look, peering through her lashes at me. “It was a while ago. She seemed pretty stressed about everything. I guess the pressure just got to her,” she said as she leaned back in her seat, crossing her legs.
I knew that she was lying. Madison was stressed, but she wouldn’t let it get to her head. She was too strong and determined for that. Something else happened, and I needed to know what it was so that I could help her.
“A few days ago or a few weeks ago?” I asked her with a stern tone. It annoyed me that I had to chip away at her words instead of her just telling me everything straight. She was dancing around my question, teasing me.
Sara shrugged as she tilted her head at me. “I’m not sure. If there’s anything that you need help with, I’d be happy to assist you, sir,” she told me, smiling up at me.
“I don’t need flattery. I need information,” I told her. I needed to get to the bottom of this before it was too late, and I lost her forever.
“I don’t know anything,” Sara said. “If I did, I’d tell you. I hate seeing you upset like this.”
I could see right through her flirty act. I clenched my jaw tightly as I placed my hands on her desk, leaning closer to her. “You’re lying,” I said. Something weird was going on, and I knew that she didn’t like Madison.
Sara shifted in her seat uncomfortably, looking away from me as I narrowed my eyes at her. “Why do you care so much that she left?” she muttered.
“Tell me what you know, or I’ll terminate your internship,” I demanded, my voice filling her office. I didn’t even care if people could hear me down the hallway. It was obvious that Sara was hiding something from me.
Sara shrunk back in her seat as she stared at me in shock. “I caught you two kissing the other night and took a photo,” she admitted. “So, I told Madison to quit the internship and to stay away from you because it wasn’t fair that she was getting special treatment from you. I said I’d send the photo to the board and the press.”
“You blackmailed her?”
“She’s an intern. You guys aren’t supposed to get together,” she said.
“No, you don’t care about rules. You just wanted to be her!” I snapped at her, knowing her game. I didn’t miss all of the times that she flirted with me, wanting to sidle up to me and get her own form of special treatment.
Sara’s eyes widened as I shouted at her. She parted her lips to speak, but I cut her off.
“I judged both of you fairly on your work. It’s not her fault that she’s the better intern. She’s more creative. She’s smarter. She’s not an egotistical, stuck-up brat that thinks everything should always go her way!” I raged on, stripping away Sara’s cocky attitude. She was Brandon in female form, and I refused to let her go unchecked like I did with Brandon. “Delete the photo. Now.”
Sara grabbed her phone immediately and went to her pictures, deleting the photo right in front of me so that I could see. She placed her phone in her lap, pouting slightly.
“There. It’s gone,” she promised. “I’m really sorry. I just wanted you to appreciate me as an intern too. I just felt overlooked.”
Even her apology didn’t sound sincere. She was only saying that to save her own skin. She didn’t feel bad about what she did to Madison. If she had any sort of a heart, she wouldn’t have blackmailed Madison in the first place. That took planning. She strategized that.
“You tried to ruin someone’s life. Two people’s lives. At any point, did you think that wasn’t the right thing to do?” I demanded. I wondered what went through her mind when she decided to threaten Madison. I could never bring myself to do something so corrupt.
Sara didn’t answer. She just stared at me, at a loss for words. I didn’t take her silence as her feeling guilty for what she had done. She was just upset that her plan backfired and I was confronting her.
“Tyler! What’s going on?” Brittany’s voice sounded from the doorway of Sara’s office.
I glared at Sara for a few more seconds before turning away from her. I wasn’t done with her yet, but I needed Brittany’s help for the next part. People like Sara got away with so many terrible things. They stepped on people, bullied people, and only cared about themselves. I wasn’t letting Sara get away with this.
“We need to talk,” I told Brittany as I walked past her and down the hallway. I heard her trailing me as I went to her office. “I need you to write up a report on Sara.”