Simon got up early the next morning, a good hour before his alarm went off. He barely slept a wink all night, but he felt energized, alert, and very focused. To work off some of his excess energy, Simon went for a run and scanned they day’s headlines, gratified to see that Harry Baleka’s poll numbers were looking good. Earlier, Simon had sent Ian a text, asking if they could meet, but Ian had not responded.
As he made his way to class, he was trying his darnedest not to interpret Ian’s lack of response as a bad sign, but doubt started to nibble at the back of his mind. He could hardly concentrate during his early morning class, and wanted to get to the office as soon as he could to see if Ian was there.
As he walked to the office, he checked his phone and saw four missed calls from Zuko. He would have to attend to those later, he thought; his focus was solely on seeing Ian as soon as possible. He reached the front of the Weekly’s offices, and he saw Dillon from Sports coming out of the building. “Northbrook! Did you see the front page story? This is bound to cause quite a stir.”
“Haven’t seen it yet, Dillon. I’ve been a bit distracted this morning. Which story got the front page this week?”
“Check it out,” Dillon said, and handed Simon a copy of the paper that he was carrying under his arm. On the front page, with a huge headline, he read, Vice-Rector’s Son Accused of Hate Crime. A picture of Conrad Riley and the residence where he lived was under the headline.
“How did they… why is this in here already? I haven’t sent the final version yet.”
“What are you talking about? Are you working on the same story? This one was written by Margeaux. Maybe your follow up can be in a future edition.” Simon could see Dillon’s lips moving, but he couldn’t hear a word he was saying. Simon’s eyes slowly moved to the byline of the story: Margeaux Chamberlain. What was happening?
Simon rushed into the offices, and saw Margeaux sitting on a desk drinking a glass of champagne, chatting with a few of the other Ridgemont Weekly journalists. “Oh absolutely, Mitchell, it was very challenging writing this story up, not to mention what a calculated risk I was taking. But I am a journalist of integrity, and believe strongly in the principles any good journalist believes in. Namely, the public has a right to know. And yes, Tara, I think this is definitely one of the most hard-hitting stories we’ve ever done. I know it will be causing waves. I just thought, if we can’t tell the truth, if we can’t fight the system, then we’re not a true news organization. I was doing this for our entire student body.”
Tara, one of the subeditors, actually applauded at Margeaux’s obnoxious speech. Simon stomped towards her, his face red with anger, “What’s going on here, Margeaux? What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Oh my, somebody got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning! Simon, are you well? You look like a complete disaster! Come with me, you clearly need a bit of debriefing.” Margeaux reached out and grabbed Simon’s elbow, as she tried to force him out of the room.
The rest of the room went quiet, looking at Simon as if he were crazy. “I’m not going anywhere, Margeaux Chamberlain, and neither are you! Did you really think that you could get away with this?” Simon shouted, as he threw the newspaper at her feet. Margeaux pulled her feet back and narrowly dodged the flinging Weekly.
“Didn’t you think that you’d be found out for this? This is plagiarism!”
“Simon Northbrook, what nerve! I don’t know what you’re talking about. I wrote every word of that story. Sure, I relied on research of public records that were freely available, and I followed up on some interviews with leads I found from an unnamed source, but this is my story!”
Margeaux’s cunning in trying to find loopholes to cover up her act of pure and adulterated theft infuriated Simon even further. “You stole that research from me! And those were my interviews! I mean, I don’t know how you did it, I can’t figure it out yet, but this was my story! You will not be getting away with this, and you can kiss the editor position goodbye, Margeaux Chamberlain!”
Margeaux smiled mockingly, “Simon, unless you have proof, I wouldn’t be making such radical accusations. You’re really coming off as quite unhinged, my sweetheart. I think you need a holiday. Shouldn’t you be studying for exams or something? Maybe you should leave this to the real professionals.”
Simon stormed out of the office. He was hardly able to see straight. How did she get hold of his research?
Simon’s phone vibrated, and he saw that it was a text from Ian. Simon, I’m so sorry. Come over to my place and we can talk about it.
Sorry? What was Ian talking about? Did he have something to do with Margeaux stealing his story?
Against his better judgement, Simon proceeded to sit down on a bench outside and read the story. She had definitely used her own words, but all of the ideas were his. All of the information was from his research. There was nothing new or unique to the article. He could prove quite easily that she had stolen it from him by comparing it to some of his old drafts that he had emailed to Ian. She didn’t even seem to care. She must have just thought that Simon would lie down and take it.
When he reached the final paragraph, his mouth was agape in shock. She had named Zuko as a source! She had said that he had taken a bribe to stay quiet about the story! There was no telling what the consequences would be for him now. That must have been why Zuko was trying to call Simon all morning.
Simon was only a few blocks from the Weekly’s offices, and he saw Ian’s car pull up. He walked towards Ian, ready to lash out at him. “Ian!” he shouted at him as he approached.
“Simon, I don’t know what to tell you. I know you’ve seen it. I just want to reassure you that…”
“That what? How did this happen? You’re the editor! You were the only one who had earlier drafts of the story! Did you send it to her? Why did you approve this paper for printing? Why did you let her steal my story and not stop her?”
“I didn’t! I don’t know how this happened. She must have changed the files we sent to the printers at the last minute or something. I really have no idea how this happened. When I looked at the first copies this morning it was too late, it was already being sent to the distribution sites. I couldn’t get all of them back in time. I’m working on it right now, but most people have already read the paper.”
“I can’t believe this. This was my story. You know what this meant to me. I trusted you to respect what I was trying to do by writing this story. Did you read it? She completely sold out Zuko at the end. Riley will be coming after him now, you can bet on that. I don’t understand how you could let this happen. Not with this story. You’re supposed to be in charge here.”
“I’m so sorry, Simon. I feel terrible about it. You know I would never want to do anything to hurt you. You’re right. I should have made sure that this didn’t happen. I’ve been off my game.”
Simon stormed off, hot tears streaming down his face. His body shook with shock and outrage, and in typical Simon fashion, he quickly slipped on his sunglasses to hide his distress.
Ian watched him walk away. He couldn’t believe that because of not being more diligent he had caused Simon so much pain. He walked into the office with purpose. He saw Margeaux laughing with the other journalists and drinking champagne at her desk. He walked up to her, trying to remain as calm as he could even though his body was shaking with anger. “Margeaux, collect your things and get out of here. You’re fired. We’ll be writing a full explanation for our next edition.”
Margeaux feigned shock, as she slammed her near empty champagne glass onto her desk, her eyes dancing wildly. “Ian, dear, you’re being irrational. I don’t know why you’re so angry about this!”
“I’m not your dear. You’d be wise to leave now before I tell everyone here exactly what you did.”
Margeaux stared at Ian incredulously. “You’re making a big mistake. You’ll realize that soon enough. I’ll come back when you calm down.” She put down her glass and grabbed her bag while walking to the door.
“You’re finished here, Margeaux. Get the picture!”
Ian realized how unprofessional he was being, embarrassing Margeaux in front of the entire office, but he didn’t care in that moment. She had hurt the one he cared for, and he wouldn’t stand for it. He tried to call Simon, but there was no answer.
He finally sent him a text. I’m trying to make it right. I’ll keep working to make it right with you.
Chapter 23