The Price of Scandal

by Score, Lucy

  “Thanks, Lita,” I said flatly.

  On impulse, she leaned in and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You’ll be okay. You always are.”

  Numbly, I picked up the phone. Derek. The name echoed over and over in my head.

  “Dad?”

  “What in the hell is going on?” he demanded. “I’ve got board members calling me. Reporters calling me. Between you and your brother, your mother sent me fifty-four text messages this morning.”

  “Dad, someone stole my formula. They’re shopping it to La Sophia. I need to find the girl who’s making the claim and figure out what’s going on.”

  I trusted the wrong man.

  My father’s sigh was heavy. “No, you don’t.”

  “I have legal pulling the patent paperwork. I’m going to throw everything I have at them. I’m not going to tolerate espionage. I’ll track Nina down. I’m checking in with the other subjects. I’ll prove this is a lie, and then I’ll sue every fucking media outlet that dares say otherwise.”

  Jane jogged back into the office looking angrier than I’d ever seen her. She handed me a printout. It was a gossip blog post.

  Chief Marketing Officer Lita Smith and public relations guru Derek Price got cozy over a quiet lunch. Emily Stanton, friend to Smith and alleged girlfriend of Price, was nowhere to be found.

  The pictures.

  Derek was leaning in chin resting on his hand and staring into Lita’s eyes as if she were the most fascinating woman on the planet. Her head was inclined in a question. His hand rested suggestively on hers. It wasn’t a kiss. It wasn’t a sex tape. But the intimacy I saw in that photo cut me to the quick. The next was worse. Derek holding Lita’s hand at his tie, looking smoldery.

  I was going to be sick. I just wasn’t sure from which end.

  Tight-lipped, Jane shuffled that printout to the bottom and tapped the next. It was a collection of headlines.

  College classmates recall Stanton’s hard-partying ways that cost a friend his life.

  Cristal Crisis: Beleaguered heiress’s drunken college nights end in wrongful death.

  Is the CEO under the influence behind the wheel? Stanton connected to fatal accident.

  There was another picture. This one from my twenty-first birthday. I was passed out on my bed in my apartment. My dress, a gold, flashy one Lita had picked for me, was hiked up around my hips showing off ripped stockings and red underwear. I was clutching an empty bottle of Cristal.

  I remembered the circumstances vividly. You need to get out of the lab once in a while before you turn into one of the rats. It’s your birthday. This should be the greatest night of your life.

  It hadn’t been. In fact, it very nearly turned out to be the worst.

  “Emily, the board is in agreement,” my father said gruffly.

  My heart rate ticked higher. Abdominal cramps turned my insides into a twisted mess. “In agreement about what?” I asked through gritted teeth. I couldn’t focus on what he was saying. I shuffled the papers to look at Derek and Lita again. Intimate. Intimate. Intimate. That wasn’t a casual lunch between business associates.

  “They want your resignation by nine a.m. tomorrow.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” I exploded.

  “Look, kid, you had a good run. You made a lot of money. But you can’t keep fucking up like this. If you want that IPO to go through, if you want job security for all those employees of yours, the board needs your head on a platter.”

  I was seething.

  “Fuck. That.”

  “So you won’t be CEO, big deal. They can’t take your shares from you. You’ll still make money as a shareholder.”

  “It’s not about the money!”

  “No need to scream. I can hear you just fine, slugger. Ah, Jesus H. Christ. Your mother’s calling me again. Nine a.m. tomorrow. Don’t make this harder than it has to be.”

  He disconnected, leaving me shaking with rage.

  “How bad?” Jane asked. “Road-side tacos with a side of salmonella bad?”

  I shook my head as my stomach lurched. “No food could ever fix this.” I whispered it so I wouldn’t shout.

  My cell phone rang again. Derek.

  I stabbed Ignore.

  It immediately began ringing again. I picked the phone up and hurled it across the room. It bounced off the wall and splintered on the floor.

  Everyone froze.

  Implacable Jane pulled a piece of gum from her pants pocket and unwrapped it. My assistants stood, mouths agape, in the doorway.

  Lona, because of course a journalist was here to witness my humiliating demise, stood silently behind them.

  “I got Jenny,” Easton said. “She’s on her way over.”

  “I’ve got an address for Nina,” Valerie said, her gaze sliding to the corpse of my phone and the dent in the drywall. I could practically hear her add “call maintenance” to her to-do list.

  “I’ll go,” Jane decided, shooting me a look that said clearly I couldn’t be trusted.

  “Call Lita and ask her to come back, will you, Valerie?” I asked calmly.

  “Absolutely.” Her head bobbed on her neck.

  “Can we do anything else?” Easton asked, his voice barely a squeak.

  “Get me a copy of my contract,” I said and headed to the bathroom.

  * * *

  Executives at the French cosmetic company weighed in on the shocking results of competitor Flawless’ new scar treatment. “It’s unfortunate that Ms. Stanton and Flawless rushed their product into testing. We at La Sophia believe that there is nothing more precious than your skin and treat our product testing accordingly. We’ve been working on a special formula that shows great promise and will bring it to market this fall…”

  43

  Derek

  “Emily Stanton’s 21st birthday ended with one dead”

  “Billionaire CEO under fire for past indiscretions”

  “Is this the end of Flawless’s IPO and CEO?”

  “We’re under attack,” Rowena said, her lips clamped around the stick of a lollypop she’d chewed to pieces an hour ago. “These stories are everywhere.”

  “Goddammit, I want to talk to your city editor now,” I snapped into my cell phone at the unsympathetic customer service rep. I wrestled my tie open. “Then tell him it’s about a pending defamation lawsuit.” Grating hold music did nothing to soothe my temper.

  I picked up the desk phone and dialed Emily’s number again. No answer.

  The stories were everywhere. Someone had orchestrated a media blitz, doling out old college photos and new accusations faster than I could threaten lawsuits.

  Emily was being attacked on all fronts, and I was fucking helpless to stop it.

  “Fuck.” I hung up both phones and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Okay, gang. This is what’s going to happen. Rowena, you’re going to call Jenny Langosta on Flawless’s legal team. Get her here. I don’t care what it takes.”

  “On it,” she said, popping a new lollypop into her mouth. “I always wanted to abduct someone.”

  “Ancarla!” I shouted.

  She swiveled away from her workstation. “D?”

  “Run down the college sources from those goddamn articles and get me everything on them. Then get me Nina Nowak on the phone.”

  “Yup.”

  “Jude?” I said in the general direction of the phone. “Where is she?”

  Jude’s voice filled the conference room from the speaker. “On the move. Just walked out. Big, cat full of canary feathers smile on her face. I’m following.”

  “Stay on her.” I dialed Emily’s number again. It went straight to voicemail. I hung up and fired off a text.

  Me: Trust me. Please.

  There was no response.

  It killed me. Emily needed me now more than ever. But she wouldn’t let me near her. And I couldn’t blame her. I’d let her down. I’d failed her. Spectacularly.

  “Fucking Lita, you know?” Ancarla complained, hitting
redial with a restrained violence. “She set this whole thing up just to tear her BFF down. Who does that?”

  Fucking Lita was right.

  I dialed her number.

  “Well, well, well,” Lita purred. “How are you going to fix this one, Derek?”

  “I’m going to tell the world that you’re behind this. Let them rip you to shreds.”

  “Oh, too bad. I was expecting something a little more creative from you. Besides, I already told Emily this is all your fault. You came on to me. I bravely resisted. Because I’m the loyal friend. You stole the formula from the lab. You do have sticky fingers, don’t you? Once a thief. Always a thief. And Emily and I have history. We’ve been together since the beginning.”

  “You’ve been biding your time and waiting for your opportunity to destroy her since the beginning.”

  “And look how patience pays off. I have my choice, either be CFO of La Sophia’s American market or, as of half an hour ago, the Flawless board members wisely offered me CEO. Isn’t that a conundrum?”

  She’d choose Flawless. Just to sit in Emily’s chair.

  “It sounds like you’re getting just what you deserve.”

  “It does, doesn’t it?” She gave a girlish giggle.

  “That was sarcasm, you abominable twat.”

  “My first act of business will be dissolving your contract with Flawless. Your services are no longer needed seeing as how I’ve destroyed your girlfriend who probably isn’t taking your calls after those pictures of us surfaced. You certainly are photogenic.”

  “What’s she saying?” Roger hissed from the opposite end of the table.

  “He called her an abominable twat,” Rowena whispered back. “I don’t think it’s going well.”

  “You won’t get away with this, Lita.”

  “Did you know that reporter who’s been following her around like a puppy was there when the news broke? There’s no way you can fix this. No way to spin it. Emily is going down finally. You should have accepted my offer, Derek. I’d let you be on top.”

  I should have decked her in that restaurant.

  “If you wanted to be CEO, why did you tank the stock offering? More money in your pocket,” I asked.

  She laughed mirthlessly. “I didn’t want CEO. At least, not specifically. I wanted her to fail. The IPO will be pushed back. After the requisite investigation, I’ll be the one finally reaping the rewards. And there’s no way for you to fix this.”

  “You haven’t earned any of this, Lita.”

  “I’ve been there since the beginning. Flawless is mine.”

  I disconnected the call and dialed Emily again. No answer.

  I needed to think. I needed to fix this. I needed Emily.

  “What in the fucking fuck did you do, Price?” Jane stormed into the office with her hand on her stun gun.

  “Oh, shit,” Roger whispered.

  “Jane, I don’t have time to fight with you right now. You can stun gun me later.”

  “How fucking stupid are you?” she demanded, ignoring my belated stun gunning offer. “You had to know Lita was up to something!”

  “I didn’t know it was stealing formulas and staging affairs,” I yelled back. Frustration and anger and, worse, helplessness warred inside me. I should have known or at least suspected. I’d underestimated her to be just another greedy, jealous viper. “Did you?”

  “Of course not,” she shouted. “I would have stuffed her in a trunk and fed her to Steve if I realized what she was up to. You need to fix this!”

  I didn’t know if I could. I could spin things and threaten lawsuits. But how could I ever win back Emily’s trust? It was such a delicate, tenuous thing. And I’d walked right into the trap.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked wearily.

  “I have Nina Nowak’s address. Thought you might want to tag along and see why she suddenly decided to destroy the woman who fixed her face. Maybe if I don’t like what she says, I could mess it up again.”

  At least there was something I could do for her. Something I could fix. And something I could prevent Jane from going to jail for.

  “Rowena, when the attorney gets here, give her access to anything that will help make this all go away.”

  “On it! Where are you going?”

  “I’m going to fix this.”

  “Don’t get arrested! We don’t have enough in petty cash for bail.”

  I followed Jane out the door.

  “Where is Emily?” I demanded.

  “She went home early because she has until nine a.m. tomorrow to resign from Flawless.”

  My fist left a sizable and satisfying hole in the drywall.

  44

  Emily

  Betrayal weighed heavily. Much more so than the familiar density of expectation and responsibility. Betrayal left me feeling helpless, hopeless, listless. I wanted to find that life-affirming anger and rouse it back to life.

  Angry was better than devastated.

  “Here, my beautiful friend.” Luna danced over to me, barefoot and charming in a flowy skirt and crop top. She pressed a goblet of some thick, dark purple liquid into my hands.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s a serenity blend with herbs and fruit juices. The collagen in it will do amazing things for your skin.”

  My skin felt too tight. Everything had changed. In just one day, I’d lost everything, and even my body seemed a stranger.

  Plus, I’d spent so much time in the bathroom this afternoon that I was dehydrated.

  We’d gathered at Luna’s. It hadn’t been spoken aloud, but due to the fact that Derek was so adept at breaking into my own house, I didn’t feel safe there. I couldn’t see him. I would break and either shatter into a thousand pieces or murder him. Daisy would have helped me with the body, but she was on her yacht in the Bahamas.

  Luna’s home looked as though her soul had exploded triumphantly over every square foot. We were on her covered terrace listening to the thrum of waves. Colorful lanterns and dazzling strings of lights hung from the ceiling in no particular pattern. The furniture was low and cushioned in purples, reds, and golds. It reminded me of an oceanfront meditation studio on steroids.

  Her fountain burbled happily on the flagstone terrace. Beyond it, the pool glowed softly under moonlight. Tealights floated on its surface.

  I took a sip of serenity and made a face when Luna wasn’t looking. The woman was heavy-handed with turmeric.

  “Moon, how do you work this stereo thing?” Cam demanded from one side of the outdoor fireplace.

  “I got it,” Luna said, dancing over to her.

  Cam joined me on the low wooden couch with cushions the color of pomegranates. “Here,” she said, handing me a very large glass of wine. “Don’t pour your serenity directly into the plants or they’ll wither up and die. Dig a little hole in the sand.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  “We’re worried about you,” she said, taking a gulp from her own glass of wine.

  “I’m worried about me, too,” I said dryly. “It’s been a day.”

  The music came on from hidden speakers above us. It was chanting monks.

  Cam snickered into her wine. “God love her.”

  “Let’s go through it beat by beat,” Luna suggested, returning to us and plopping down on a rattan ottoman. “It’s important to let yourself feel the trauma, or it can take root in your body.”

  “The vegan beauty Instagram influencer speaks the truth,” Cam teased.

  “You guys don’t really want to hear this,” I sighed.

  “Yes. We do,” Luna said firmly. “Start at the beginning.”

  So I hit them with it. All of it. Starting with my revelation in the hallway at AHA and then moving on to Trey’s phone call, my mother’s demands, the media shitstorm. And then Derek. Or, more precisely, Derek and Lita.

  They listened without interrupting until the end.

  “And to top it off, my father calls me and tells me the bo
ard is expecting my resignation from Flawless by tomorrow at nine.”

  “That’s fucking bullshit,” Cam snapped.

  “And how does that make you feel?” Luna asked, resting her chin on her hand.

  “How does that make me feel? Really fucking shitty, Moon.”

  I felt wrung out and defeated. And perhaps just slightly, marginally better for at least releasing the words from the body.

  “Great. That’s exactly how you should feel,” Luna said approvingly. The monks above us hit a particularly monotonous note.

  “I’d like to point out that Ems here seems to be way more upset over that British sex god than about Flawless,” Cam said.

  “I’m not,” I argued.

  “Babe, you are,” Luna said gently. “He hurt you.”

  Deeply. Irreparably. Scarringly.

  Cam raised a finger. “Listen, this is not coming from a disloyal place, but you don’t actually believe that he screwed around with Lita, do you?”

  “You saw the pictures,” I said.

  “Technically, that’s not an answer,” Luna pointed out. “We’ve all seen the pictures, and I’m still inclined to agree with the beautiful Cam here.”

  I heaved a sigh and thought about Lita’s superpower ability to seduce a man. Derek’s flirtatious charm. “Look, even if they didn’t have sex, those pictures made it very clear that something beyond business was happening.” My stomach rolled again. Dear God, did I even have any liquid left in my body? “Something that he kept from me after I made it abundantly clear that anything less than complete transparency was a deal-breaker for me.”

  “Fair enough. He screwed up big time,” Cam agreed. “But I’m seeing a well-orchestrated, multi-pronged smear campaign. All of the rest of it is bullshit. So why wouldn’t the pictures be bullshit too?”