I smiled at Carla and she said, “Go straight in, Faith.”
I knocked on Sally’s door. “Leave me alone!” she shouted, and I let myself in. Sally was in her usual position, sitting on her chair, her feet up on her desk, reading something in her hands.
I took my seat, and I tried to prepare myself for whatever the outcome was. Sally peered at me over the top of her glasses and smiled. I shuddered. In all my time at Visage I had never seen her smile. It resembled a viper about to attack an innocent mouse. “I liked it,” she said. I exhaled a pent-up breath.
“Oh thank Christ!” I slumped back in my chair like I’d just run the New York marathon dressed as a giant banana.
Sally opened her drawer and placed a copy of my feature before her on the desk. “So, French, rich, fucks like a dog in heat. I have my suspicions of who it might be. I’ve narrowed it down to about three people. Can I give you my guesses and wait for your reaction?” I shook my head. Sally leaned in closer, practically salivating for gossip. “Come on, Faith. Who is it? Just between us girls.”
“Sorry. I can’t say,” I said and locked my mouth with an invisible lock. “NDA rules.”
She slapped the desk. “Dammit! But I’m on to them.”
“I can’t believe you like it.”
“It’s got it all, Faith. Sex, fun, intrigue, hotness. It was exactly what I was looking for.”
“So…I have the big feature?” I dared ask, wondering how she could ever refuse.
Sally smiled again. “No. Sorry.”
It took me a few seconds for that response to sink in. “W-what,” I stuttered. “Why?” I felt my hope break apart along with my heart.
“This is not on me, sweetheart,” she said and put her legs back on the desk, halfway done with me. “This came from the big guns.”
I laughed without humor. “King,” I said, his name tasting sour on my tongue. “King Sinclair stopped this, didn’t he?”
Sally pulled down her glasses to perch on her nose. “Not King, Faith. Harry. He was the one who kyboshed your feature.”
“What?” I said, blood draining from my face. She was wrong. She must be wrong.
“Read it this morning, first thing. Threw that fucker out along with last night’s trash.” Sally went back to reading whatever she’d had in her hands. “We’re done, Faith.” I stood on shaky legs. “For what it’s worth,” Sally called over her shoulder. “It deserved the spot.”
“Thank you,” I said, unable to be excited even about rare praise from Sally. I shut her door and immediately saw Harry’s office. I didn’t overthink it; instead I marched in that direction like a pissed-off steam train.
“Faith?” Theo said as I stormed by. “Do you have an appointment?” Poor Theo didn’t even get a reply from me. I was about to become a one-woman wrecking machine.
I pushed the door open, slammed it behind me, and rounded the corner to see Harry perched over his desk, head in his hands. “How could you?” I said, my voice not as loud and strong as I had hoped it would be.
Harry snapped his head up. His navy-blue tie was discarded on his desk, and his shirt collar was open. I barely registered that he looked stressed, hair in disarray, I was too fueled by betrayal and on a one-way ticket to kick-ass central. Harry got to his feet, his tall frame towering over me on the other side of his desk.
“It was before you,” I said, but deep down I had known all this time that my time at NOX was going to ruin us. “It was before you and I even kissed. Hell, it was before I could even stand to talk to you!” I paced in front of him. “You knew how much I wanted that feature, and you cut it? To what? Protect your friends? I played the NDA game, Harry. There are no names involved. It was vague enough to protect those in charge. It was a motherfucking masterpiece and you, of all people, are the one to destroy it? You, Harry. Why?”
He said nothing, so I continued. “I knew I should have told you, at least about being a member of NOX, but things were going so well, and I didn’t want to tell you about Maître. I didn’t want you to know about my sleeping with him.” Harry was a marble statue, just staring at me. It infuriated me. “Is that why you’re pulling it? Because you’re jealous? Because it makes zero sense to me otherwise! Tell me, WHY?”
Harry laughed without mirth. His shook his head and took a step back so he stood in front of a picture of, I assumed, him and his mother at some pleasant-looking country estate with rolling hills in the background.