Chapter 114

Pearl had called Maggie while she was still in New York. "I need a favor." She said. "Of course" Maggie said. "We have to keep it just between the two of us. I have a couple of questions for you and what I'm asking isn't easy." Maggie agreed and the plan began.

She met Maggie at the bookshop minutes before she pulled into the company parking garage. "I got it. You were right. I can't believe it." She said to Pearl, handing her an manilla envelope and a laptop. "Thank you." Pearl said, hugging her. "I have copies of everything on a secure drive in a safe deposit box. We're good." Maggie said.

Pearl pulled into the parking garage and opened the envelope and looked inside. There it was. All typed out. Everything. Perfect, she thought.

Pearl walked to the chair in David's office and sat down, crossing her legs and leaning her arm casually on the arm of the chair.

"Did you hear me? I asked you a question." David said. "What are you doing here?" He asked again.

Pearl smiled at David, leaned forward and said, "You don't ask the questions. I ask the fucking questions. Are we clear?" She leaned back into the chair.

He looked at her and sat down at his desk.

"Ok. Ask the fucking questions then." He said.

"I will when I'm ready. You don't get to tell me when to ask them." Pearl stared at him, making him obviously uncomfortable, sitting there, staring at him in silence for several minutes.

"Ok. First question." Pearl finally said. "Did she contact you or did you contact her?"

David looked at her like he didn't know what she was taking about.

She leaned forward and slammed her hand on his desk. "If I have to repeat myself one time in this conversation, I'm going to the police with something that will cause you so much more pain than anything you could dream of doing to me." Pearl said.

"You have nothing on me. Nothing." He laughed.

"Oh really? I wouldn't be so sure of that." Pearl said. "Now, did you contact Carys or did she contact you?"

"She contacted me." He said. "She said it would help both of us. That we could both have a chance making it work again. Her with Rhys and me, with you. If you lost your chance at a career, you'd resent Rhys and fame and come back to me." David put his head down.

"I'm going to need you to go to the press with that." She said to him. "Today."

"And what if I don't?" He asked.

"Well, even though I told you I was asking the questions, I'll let you have this one." She said.

She handed him the envelope. He opened it and looked inside. "You and your little cohort aren't the only ones that know how to play dirty." She said. "Only what I have isn't false"

His face turned white as a ghost as he read the typed letter. "Where did you get this?" He asked. "How did you get this?"

"I remember being in your house early one morning and you initiating sex with me in an odd spot. Over a chair by your door. I looked down and saw a red flashing light. At first I thought nothing of it but then I started putting two and two together. I called Ashley and asked if the two of you had sex there. At first she didn't want to talk about it but when I described the chair sex you and I had, and the flashing light, she told me that she, too was in a similar spot with you." She leaned in closer to him. "And so did Maggie."

He looked at her in sheer panic.

"So, I sent Maggie to your home to visit you last week. Remember? She was there to console her dear friend and fuck buddy on his loss of the company and congratulate him on his big article that came out how he was used by evil Pearl. During her friendly support visit, she confiscated your laptop and the camera, still in your bedroom, strategically placed to shoot activity on the chair. Why the chair? That took me a minute but then I realized it is the perfect angle of both of our faces and the intercourse itself. Clever boy." She said.

He said nothing. He didn't even look up from the paper he was holding in his hand.

"Have you heard of something called 'Expectation of Privacy?" Pearl asked him. Again, he didn't answer.

"It means these recordings are illegal."

She paused and pointed at the bottom of the paper he was holding. "But that's not the best part!" She said. "I have an email from you, to Carys, telling her if her plan doesn't work, you're going to blackmail me with this tape. Isn't that wonderful?" Pearl smiled and clapped her hands and leaned back in the chair again.

"So it looks like we have ourselves in a sticky situation here, huh Dave?" She smiled and stood up. He still said nothing.

"If I find out there are other copies of these videos, all three of us are going to the police and the press. If you don't go to all the media outlets and denounce Carys and tell the truth about myself and her conniving ass TODAY, I'm going to police with this. How's that for blackmail?" She said. "Also, you're fired. I expect you out of the building in one hour or I will have you escorted out and thrown onto your ass in the street. And tell Carys I'm coming for her next so she better watch her back. I'm done playing childish games with you. Goodbye David. If I ever have to look at your face again, you're fucked. Know that. Bye now. I'll leave the door open for you." She said and walked out.