She backed away into the kitchen, searching for a pen and paper near the telephone that hung on the wall. She needed to end this cold silent war she had waged unjustly against Raul for the credit he hadn’t stolen. She should have known he would never sabotage her success for his own personal gain. She should have asked before jumping to assumptions that he would betray her. Raul Smothers was a man of integrity, and if only she had considered his character before reacting, she would be telling him how much she loved him in person rather than on this silly apology note.
And that’s exactly what she wrote on the note pad that she left on his kitchen counter.
Deciding to wait to tell him in person the good news about the Cook Pharmaceuticals settlement, she tucked the corner of the note under his half-full mug of that morning’s coffee, then grabbed her purse from the counter. The macrame fabric caught a stack of mail, scattering it across the floor. Leaning down to pick each piece up, she noticed something interesting amid the advertisements and utility bill.
An open letter from Newsbreak, attached to an unsigned check to Raul Smothers “for services rendered,” the memo declared. Wondering what services the no-longer-reporting Raul had rendered, she read the corresponding missive and gasped:
We appreciate your willingness to supply credible information regarding the Samantha Stanton and Thomas Cook controversy for our paper. Enclosed is a check per our agreement.
Sam glanced at the date on the check. It was issued in January of 1971, over a year and a half ago. The timeline matched when Floyd Jameson had published the article about Sam forging the ledger. Could Raul have been the one to put that reputation-ruining story in motion?
The rattle of a key in a lock startled Sam.
“There you are!” Raul exclaimed as he waltzed through the door blindly into a war zone. “I’ve tried calling you and I was just at your house looking for you.”
Then he noticed the letter in Sam’s hand, along with the uncashed check.
“What is this?” Sam demanded, wanting so badly for him to give an explanation she could approve.
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“It looks like you sold information about my ledger theft—correction, my forgery—to Newsbreak.”
“Okay, it is what it looks like, but not for the reasons you might be thinking.”
“I don’t care about the reason, Raul. Was losing me worth—” she glanced at the check, “$500?”
“I never cashed it, Sam. I felt terrible about it afterward. I was just trying to protect you.”
“Protect me by accusing me of forging a ledger?”
Raul held a hand up, but Sam would not be silenced.
“You destroyed my name! You crushed my career! You are no better than Thomas Cook or any other man set on squashing women who tried to rise up.”
“It was never about holding you back, Sam.”
“No, it was about publicly making me look like a liar, which is worse.”
“I was trying to prevent you from being charged with theft!” Raul tried to reason with her.
“Which I never asked you to do,” Sam reminded him.
“But it all turned out okay. You’ll bounce back. You always do. This has happened to me too. People have short memories.”
Yet Raul was missing one crucial ingredient to his logic: there was a difference between those who have already risen to the top and fall, and those who fall before they’ve even left the ground.
“Do you know how hard it was for me to establish any kind of respect, let alone after being publicly defamed? It was near impossible, Raul!” Sam felt angry sobs surging, and this time she wouldn’t hold them back. “Here I was furious at Thomas Cook, even Mel, for vilifying me. Never in a million years would I imagine that my backstabber, the one who would in the end hold me back, was the love of my life.”
Raul fell silent as he absorbed Sam’s profession of love mixed with clashing hate. His defense was simple but stupid:
“I… I only did it so you wouldn’t get charged with theft and end up in jail. You were playing with fire, and I was trying to extinguish it.”
“By running my name through the mud. By taking my column from me. And I could have forgiven all of that, because you were more important than those things. But you did something unforgiveable, Raul. And if you truly know me, and love me like you say you do, you would know exactly what that unforgiveable thing is.”
Sam didn’t give Raul a chance to guess at what that unforgiveable thing was as she stormed out, determined never to again set eyes on the man who broke her heart, tore apart her soul, and left her love for dead.
Chapter 45
