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SEVENTEEN

I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

"I understand," Jamie Earl said. "Thank you for giving me this information, Nicholas. I agree that it was not the best idea and it should never happen again. Yes, we need diversity but it has to come with skill. We can't publish mediocre work just because we need stories of different genres. I'll create time for a meeting with all of you so that we can review this and think of a way forward."

"Thanks for listening," I told him, glad that he had spared time to listen to me. I was not willing to judge a contest with so much unfairness again. Jamie's father started the contest to help talented young writers get published. Even those who didn't come first had a shot if their work was satisfactory. I rose to my feet. "I'll leave now."

"Thank you for informing me about this," he offered me his hand and I shook it. "Have a good day."

When I left Jamie Earl's office, I went straight to Root$, the publishing house I worked as an editor. I met the managing director on the way to my office.

"I've been looking for you, Nicholas." She said. "Carrie just told me that you haven't gone through the slush pile since you got back. We need new content. Let's see, you told me about a girl that writes well. Does she have anything good right now?"

I had told her about Eve before she decided she didn't want to talk to me anymore.

"I let you take leave for that contest because you claimed it would help you with talent scouting. Where's the talent?"

"I'll talk to the girl and other participants. I have three books I'm currently editing. Irma Perez's story is really good and I think it'll make a good amount of money. It might become a best seller if we do the marketing properly."

"Are you trying to make me focus on marketing so I forget everything?"

"No, of course not."

"Get back to work," she walked away, heels clicking against the floor.

"Thanks for getting me into trouble," I told Carrie, my assistant when I got to the office.

"I'm sorry but you know how Marie is," Carrie said. "She can get information out of any person. By the way, your girlfriend was here."

"You know I don't have a girlfriend," I said, taking my office chair. "Who was it?"

"Said her name is Keri."

"We're not actually dating," I told Carrie. I got a call from Fernanda the moment I picked up one of the manuscripts. Thinking she wanted to talk about the fact that I had told Jamie about the judging process, I decided to ignore it but she didn't give up. She called again and I toyed with the idea of hitting the reject icon but decided to silence it. After a while she sent a message which I read.

It's about Keri. Call me as soon as you can.

I dialled her number and she answered immediately.

"Hi," I said, acting unashamed of the fact that I had just ignored her calls.

"Hi Nico, can we meet?"

"You know we don't really get along. What's up?"

"Please come," she insisted. "I'm at a restaurant near Root$. It'll take only about five minutes."

The restaurant was only two blocks away from my office building so I walked there. Fernanda was wearing a blue dress and a pair of gold earrings. Her make up was simple and flawless as usual. If I didn't hate her so much I might have felt lucky to have lunch with a beautiful woman like Fernanda.

"Hey, I have a lot of work to do and we don't get along just get it over with," I said. I got sat on a chair opposite hers.

"I'm sorry for what happened," she said. "You were right. I wanted Eve out. I came to explain."

"Go ahead," I said and asked a waiter for a glass of orange juice.

"I was blackmailed by your friend Keri. She threatened to tell my daughter that she's adopted."

"What? Are you making this up?"

"Look at me, Nicholas." She said. "Do I look like I would make up something like this?"

I studied her and couldn't think of a valid reason why Fernanda would make up something. I'd never trusted Keri so it was possible. "So, Keri blackmailed you to use that criteria so it would be easy to eliminate Eve?"

"Yes."

Though it didn't surprise me, it was unexpected. Feeling anger rise inside me, I stood up. I had to see Keri immediately. What she had done had not only broken the possibility of friendship between Evie and I but also ruined Eve's dreams of winning the contest. I could never forgive her for this.