Page 104 of The Frog Prince

And I know then that whatever happened here with my Kid Fest account, Sara was part of it.

Maybe Sara was my “assistant,” the one who made the calls.

My throat squeezes; my head’s throbbing. I turn my back on her. I’ve no proof, no facts, just a hunch. A suspicion.

I’m in trouble.

But I don’t tell Tessa that. Tessa’s too much of a hothead. “It’s going to be okay,” I say to Tessa instead. “Everything will be okay.”

“You swear?”

“I swear.”

Tessa returns to her desk.

*

Moments later Davidcalls me into his office. Olivia’s still in there, too.

My stomach does a free fall as I enter David’s office. He gestures for me to close the door. I do. And then he asks me to sit, and I take the chair opposite Olivia’s, but I don’t look at her.

“You saw this,” he says, sliding the newspaper across his desk toward me. It’s today’s paper, open to page three and the big color photo of the crying little girl staring out.

“I did,” I say.

“Can you tell me what happened?” he asks—the same question everyone’s been asking, but in his voice there is weariness and resignation.

I hear rather than see Olivia shift. She’s waiting to attack, I think, waiting for me to show a chink in my armor and she’ll go in for the kill.

But there’s no point in blaming her. I’ve no hard proof that Olivia was behind this, and I’m not about to turn this office into some kind of turf war, even though I know Tessa would love to make this bigger, something personal, even political. It’s tempting, but it’s also emotional and irresponsible, and I can’t do that.

As Olivia said months ago, City Events isn’t a sorority. It’s a business. And I’m a professional, and professional enough to know that City Events’ success is built on Olivia’s talent and back. David may like me, but he needs Olivia.

“There was miscommunication,” I say at last.

“One hundred disadvantaged children were disappointed,” he answers.

“I’m sorry.”

“This landed on page three.”

I nod.

“We can’t get the media out for anything we do right, and the second there’s a fuckup, its front-page news.”

Yeah. With a nice big color photo, too.

“Holly, tell me how this could have happened.”

He’s pleading with me now, and I’ve never liked David Burkheimer more. He’s a good man—kind, fair, and his heart is in the right place. I like the fact that he loved his Tony so much, and yet I’m glad he’s got someone new. And I feel bad for David because I like him, and I know he liked me, and this whole thing is just shit.

“What did Olivia tell you?” I ask stiffly, shooting her a cold, hard glance.

“She said you were disorganized. That your files were missing contracts and many of your contracts were incomplete.”

What a piece of work she is, I think. “It’s not true,” I say.

“She made copies of your files.” David lifts a stack of papers. “They’re here. I’ve seen them, Holly.”