CHAPTER 25

Olivia

I was never really a big fan of those cliché openings in the movies; the ones that featured the career woman getting ready in the morning. It was usually bubblegum. I had never seen such pure sunshine in the movies, but New York wasn't that bright. I mean, I would love it to be, but most of the time, the buildings would just get in the way of the sun. Not to mention that those actresses always woke up with faces full of make-up, signifying that they were pumped and energized to start the day. No one was ever like that in real life. I couldn't remember the last time Iwantedto wake up early.

Which was why I was kind of catching myself a lot today. It might just be because I hit a reset button due to my quick little visit to Norway, but I was somewhat… bright and bubbly today. I had a spring in my step as I took my morning shower, even though the hot water in my building was broken again. As I was changing, I definitely had a couple of loads of laundry that I had to carry down to the basement. And when I caught my train, I was once more being squished like a sardine in the subway.

But I just didn't mind. Usually, upon arriving at work, I was already drained from my exhausting morning commute. But there I was, almost skipping and singing into the newsroom. I wouldn't have been the least bit surprised to see that bluebirds were following me.

"Well, someone's chipper today," Janet said as I passed.

"It's a great day!" I had never said those words. I was pretty sure the last time I did was when I was thirteen years old before I got into the hell that was high school.

Entering the office, I was immediately greeted by a smiling Lucy. "Olivia! Congratulations!" She gave me a quick hug.

I hugged back, feeling optimistic about the day even though I had no idea where all this positive energy was coming from.

"Oh, thanks, Lucy! But you already congratulated me for the ski resort story," I reminded her, not really in a way that was correcting her rudely—just a simple nice reminder. It was still cool to think that people wanted to see more of me, though. "But you owe me a little chat. What's been going on around here—"

"I wasn't talking about the story. I was talking about how you somehow managed to get yourself off Ben's shit list," Lucy clarified. "I mean, I had a feeling you could do it. But a lot of people have tried, and quite frankly, failed."

Damn, that felt like ages ago.

"Yeah, it's a huge relief. Although I'm sure no one is really ever off his shit list, right? I mean, it seems really easy to get there." I felt weird talking about Ben from all the extracurricular things that we did in Norway.

Honestly, I was going to try to not talk about him at all with my co-workers unless absolutely necessary. There really wasn't a need for an employee to talk about their boss all the time unless they hated them or they were fucking them on the down low. I didn't need them thinking either of those things about me and Ben.

"I've been working here for a long time, and most people who make this list don't really last for a month," Lucy explained as she walked back to her seat and sat down, going back to what she was working on. "And you just survived your first month! I have to ask: How did you do it?"

Okay, now that was definitely a loaded question. On one hand, I would like to think that I significantly improved my reporting style ever since I did the whole gastropub story with that creep, James Jensen. I would like to think that two viral stories and seemingly almost positive reception from the public also had a huge contribution to that. I would really like to think that I got myself off his list by my gradual improvement within the job. However, I wasn't naïve and silly to think that blow jobs didn't play a part in all of this progress. The situation with Ben was a lot to take in, and I was nowhere near fully understanding it, but I was just sincerely happy.

So, for the time being, I was just going to say, "I think I just allowed myself to let loose and take a few deep breaths before doing the job. I just had to stop overthinking and trust my own instincts."

I let out the biggest smile as I answered Lucy. I was just hoping it didn't look suspicious or anything like that.

"And of course, with you helping me out along the way, I didn't think I was going to get kicked out," I went on to say. Though I was trying to divert the topic away from Ben, I really did mean what I said.

Lucy merely shook her head.

"Give yourself more credit, Olivia. She said it so confidently that I really believed it.

It was time for work, so I went over to my desk and saw that I already had my story for the day. It was good to be working. It had been a tumultuous past month, but I felt like I could finally say to myself that I was finally letting my journalism dreams come true. I was no longer a nobody press release writer who did nothing but fluff up people who didn't deserve it. I was actually in a company where I could start doing things that mattered. Granted, I was still doing fluff pieces, but I suddenly found this new sense of patience, somehow knowing deep down that if I continued to prove myself, I would eventually do the big stories. I just had to give it time and not rush into it like I was trying to during my first week.

Taking another deep breath, I reached out to open the file that was sent to me, ready to start my next story. But as I was about to start reading, Eric interrupted.

"Lucy, Olivia, emergency meeting," he said quickly. He stood there with his hands on hips and looked confused when we both didn't jump up from our desks.

"O-Okay. In the conference room?" Lucy said as she quickly stood up from her desk, myself following suit.

"No. Upstairs. Executive meeting room."

What? That was where board meetings were held and actual important things happened. Why did Lucy and I have to go up there? We exchanged a curious look and then started hustling to catch up with Eric.

Worry clutched in my stomach as we got to the elevators. This was the first time any of us were called up there. Was something wrong? Was Ben okay? I whipped myself up into an anxious frenzy by the time the elevator door slid open and dumped us on the top floor.

Ben

There were always trials and tribulations running a company. I made myself aware of all of that from every angle I could think of. I knew the risks of attempting to continue my father's failing broadcasting company at the age of twenty-two. They told me over and over that I couldn't bring back something that was already dead to begin with. It took a lot of guts to try to compete in an industry that was already saturated by household networks when OVT was simply a small office in Brooklyn. At that time we only had around thirty employees by the time my father had given up on it. I knew that I could have simply started another company; one that was fresh and lucrative for the taking—with few competitors and less work to do. I could have left OVT to rot into nonexistence if I wanted to, but I had always lived my life following my passion. It was what drove me to achieve what I did. It was never about the money or the accolades or the fame. I was once a young adult who wanted to do what he loved.

Now, when I was approaching fifteen years running OVT, I was faced with my biggest obstacle yet.

"Jebediah Olson has been relentlessly branding us as fake news for the past eight hours." John, one of the board members pointed out, panic filling his voice. "I don't mean to be fear-mongering, but having one of the leading presidential candidates publicly tarnishing our reputation is something we have to take action on immediately."

I never liked John. All he ever really did was repeat what the problem was over and over and never offered any type of solution. Unfortunately, he was still a stakeholder, and he had every right to be here.

"Where is the reporter that published this story?" John always liked things to happen in a flash, not caring if the newsroom was in an adjacent connected building and the executive floor was on the top floor. He wasn't really much help, either—just a lot of talk and hot air. That was what most of them did, actually. They really liked to talk and talk and talk. It was evident to me that they weren't here for their love of journalism or their passion for truth. Money made the world go round, after all.

Thankfully, Eric came striding in, Lucy and Olivia behind him. At least it got everyone to shut up for a second.

My eyes landed immediately on Olivia. It was the first time I had seen her since our flight back to New York. Admittedly, I would have loved to spend some more time at the ski resort, but my responsibilities always restricted my free time. I appreciated that she showed me a new perspective on what I was doing with my life, but I knew it couldn't change that quickly, especially during campaign season.

"Got here as soon as I could, Ben," Eric said calmly, sitting down on the chair on my right. Lucy and Olivia took the two open seats toward the other end of the table, confused about what they were doing here. I couldn't blame them, of course.

I glanced toward Olivia for a few seconds, and I could tell that she was anxious about what was going on. Taking a deep breath, I stood up from my seat at the head of the table and walked around the room. I never liked this meeting room, as it was my father's before it was mine. We had a lot of unpleasant conversations in this space, and though the classic wood finish of the interior was beautiful, I still wasn't very fond of it.

"Thank you for joining us on such short notice," I started, nodding solemnly at Lucy and Olivia. "I'm sure you must be wondering why we've called you up here."

The worst part about being in charge was being the bearer of bad news. I hated it. But some things needed to be done, because it wasn't fair to keep this from my employees any longer.

"It has come to our most recent calculations that OVT Broadcasting Network is now bleeding cash," I finally revealed, earning a shocked gasp from several people in the room, including some of the board members.

"What!?" one of them, Angela, said, appalled.

"How?" Sam bellowed out, enraged. Meanwhile, the reporters just quietly reacted, while worry quickly filled both of their eyes. Probably still confused about what this actually had to do with either of them.

Eric then cleared his throat, filling in for me.

"OVT Broadcasting Network has now been caught up by the streaming era of viewership. Though we had transitioned into making a majority of our news available online, we are now simply living in the shadows of the other bigger networks."

"But what about our recent spike in viewership thanks to that new girl!?" Angela grilled. "This has to be a joke!"

Unable to control myself, I placed a very firm fist against the table, silencing everyone in the room. It wasn't a violent smack to the wood, but it was enough to make a statement.

"I brought this company out of the shadows of these other bigger networks since I started working here, and I have worked tirelessly to bring it out again," I said, voice unyielding as I looked at every single one of the board members with a hardened gaze. "I made myself, the President, hands-on with every single report. I ran through every single story, every edit, every revision, and I made sure that all of it was within my standards."

The reporters suddenly had realization flash through their eyes as they finally pieced the situation together. I could especially see it on Lucy's face, knowing that I wasn't this involved in the newsroom before this year.

"And you dare claim that what I told all of you was simply a joke?" I countered, and Angela shrank away from the table. I let out a sigh, and continued, "But there's currently more pressing matters at hand."

On cue, Eric played a video on the monitor in the room, revealing none other than Presidential Candidate Jebediah Olson in one of his campaign rallies.

"OVT has claimed that I, a man of good faith, have performed unheroic acts. They specified in their articles that during my time as Secretary of Defense, I sold weapons to our enemies. These are lies."

The recording of Olson played, and thousands of supporters present at his rally all unanimously booed.

"Well, dare I say that I fortified this great nation by providing only the best manpower money could buy! And OVT Broadcasting Network, with their political bias and fake news, attempts to tarnish all of my hard work! Well, next time you have a terrorist break into your home, don't come to me!"Olson continued, earning even more roaring screams from the audience."If you want fake news outlets like OVT Broadcasting Network shut down for good with their devilish lies, then vote for me as your next President!"

The screaming was so loud that it went over our normal frequency and the meeting room speakers couldn't handle it anymore.

A stunned silence fell in the room, and again, I couldn't blame them for not knowing what to say. As we were gathered, every single social media outlet of OVT had been receiving nothing but threats and angry comments. Our television viewership had been cut by around forty percent. Every single story we published so far was getting nothing but comments that claimed that every single word was fake news. Even Olivia's feature pieces were getting bombed with the same comments. Some sponsors pulled out of our advertising slots, and some exclusive interviews had backed out of appearing in any of our talk shows.

My eyes landed on Olivia once more, and I saw the horror in her eyes as she continued to stare at the frozen frame of Jebediah Olson. I would understand, because Olson was none other than the person Olivia worked for as a press release writer.

It was safe to say that OVT Broadcasting Network was now a crashing plane, and if we didn't do anything about it soon, we were all going to go up in flames.