Chapter 22: Caught In The Spotlight

My office door flung open unexpectedly.

I thought I would look up from my report and see Rodger huffing and puffing a second time about my own personal choices. But it was Bentley.

He stood there, half smirking as he watched me close my notebook to attend to him. There were no flowers in his hand or any fancy gifts that time, but that didn’t stop me from thinking he had stopped by as a sweet gesture.

Tina, Marcia, and Mandy were all standing outside my window peering in, making googly eyed faces, and fanning themselves.

I playfully shooed them away to no avail, while Bentley made himself comfortable in the seat in front of my desk.

For a moment, he sat there, staring at me through piercing eyes. I thought he would tell me he was done answering my questions and to never contact him again.

Until he finally spoke and put me out of my misery.

“So, this is it, huh? Where all the magic happens and crimes are solved.”

I put down my pen and rested back against my chair.

“Yeah. This is it,” I replied. “Where all the magic happens. How’d you know where to find me?”

“Isaiah told me.”

I let out a soft laugh and started to relax a little more, and that’s when he laid it on me.

“There’s also this.” He pulled a column from the daily newspaper from his inside pocket and placed it in front of me. “Have you seen this?”

I lifted the column and saw my face front and center, and right next to me, there he was. The headline read: Westlake reporter Justine Sky, entangled with the infamous Bentley Thomas, a person of interest in the Ivy Smith murder scandal.

I was mortified.

Right away, all my fingers pointed to Rodger. He was the only one who was in uproar about my interaction with Bentley, so it made perfect sense that he would leak such a story about me.

“Looks like I'm not the only one this town is painting as some big bad wolf,” he said.

“This is a disgusting piece!” I shouted. “There’s no way they allowed this to be published. There’s no way anyone actually believes I had anything to do with Ivy’s murder! Ugh! This was a terrible idea.”

I paced back and forth in my office, contemplating my actions.

Bentley sat there quietly, a look of worry resting on his face. I wanted to go back in time and erase everything I had done with him. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.

There's no reset button or magic fairies to grant me any wishes. I had to face the spotlight and climb out of my own grave.

*“Justine and Ivy were college friends who grew apart after an incident that changed the course of their friendship.”*

Bentley read that line out loud and waited for me to respond.

I had no response, though. What happened between Ivy and me had nothing to do with why she ended up dead at his nightclub.

“I’m not the one with the checkered past here,” I spat. “I would never do anything to hurt anyone. Especially Ivy. What happened between us in college was years ago. We both grew past it and moved on with our lives.”

“What happened?” he asked, completely ignoring my hint. “It couldn't have been so bad that you wanted to seek revenge after so long.”

“It wasn’t!" I shouted. "Don’t try to spin this around on me because you’re in the hot seat. Ugh! I should have kept my distance from you.”

The deeper I sank into the hole I knew would only get wider and wider, the meaner I was to Bentley.

He could have gotten up and walked out on me at any point in time, but he didn’t. He sat there and took every blow I threw at him. Right then and there, I should have taken his claim of innocence at face value, but I was still skeptical.

“Hey,” he stood in my path to stop my pacing. “I’m not your enemy here. I know you would never do anything like this, and neither would I. Just because the world is questioning our character right now doesn't mean we have to turn our backs on each other. From day one, I said I'm here to help. Nothing’s changed. I understand you can’t have something like this hanging over your head because of your job, but soon enough, everything will come to light.”

His words were gentle and kind, and so was the hand he rested on my lower back when he pulled me close to him. I wanted to stay in his arms forever to seek comfort, but I pushed myself away before anyone saw us.

“You can’t be here, Bentley,” I said reluctantly. “I can’t be seen in public with you anymore. Not after this article has come out. The tabloids and press are gonna be all over this, and I can't have my name attached to you when I've done nothing wrong. This is only the beginning. When the sharks sink their teeth in something this juicy, they don’t stop until there’s blood.”

His eyebrows furrowed and his face twisted into anger.

He scoffed and chuckled while shaking his head as he tried to find the proper way to respond. His hands rose to his hips as he stared at me in disbelief. I was in disbelief.

With myself. The article. My running away from him.

It was clear that my feelings were all twisted up and I was in too deep. Even though I said I was done playing my role and I couldn't be caught in the spotlight with him again, I wanted that more than I wanted anything.

“Who would have leaked something like this?” he asked. “I mean, who could have known that you and I had anything else going on? Or are they just speculating because we’ve been seen together a few times?”

“I have an idea,” I sighed and sat back at my desk.

“Ok then, who was it?” He asked sharply.

His tone made me afraid to tell him. It sounded as if he wanted to retaliate against anyone who brought trouble to his doorstep. Or mine.

“I can’t tell you that, Bentley. In my profession, we deal with things like this all the time. It’s one big competition. The battle for the next story is cutthroat and ruthless. The only difference between what you do and what I do is that we don’t kill each other. At least, not as often.”

He looked at me as if I were crazy for not wanting to retaliate.

The truth was, I did want to retaliate. But I had to keep things professional on my end. I was already in hot water because of that article. I didn’t want to make things worse before I had a chance to get out of the pot.

“It was that guy you were at the club with, huh?” He squinted, showing that he was deep in thought. “Rodger? Was that his name?”

“Bentley,” I said cautiously, afraid he would do something to harm Rodger too. “We don’t know that for sure, so don’t go doing anything crazy. Give me some time to sort this out on my own.”