Stand By Me Darling

"Yesterday, I got a call from The Daily Beacon..." Joe looked at Talia. His fingers were tightly interlocked showing the stress he is in and his neck veins were popping out showing he was mad.

Talia could see that he was angry. However, who is the recipient of his anger was unknown. Was he angry at himself or at Rachel?

It took a minute for Joe to compose himself, "They asked my permission to publish an article about you, with the input from ’sources close to you’... " he looked at Talia and Talia who was petting Bear, paused and got serious. Arthur got alert too.

"The editor, who is a close friend of mine, knew you are my wife’s best friend and was a bit doubtful that I approved this article to be published... I was surprised since I didn’t commission anyone to write any article about you. But I didn’t tell her that and asked to hold from publishing the article until I give the approval. And the article... "

" It was lies? " Talia asked seeing Joe hesitating.

" Well... Not lies, everything was true but it was written in a way that would have shown you in a... bad light. It seemed like an ode to your greatness, explaining your great performance in University, your achievements in lifting up our firm, and managing it perfectly... It said you didn’t even let relationships and friendships stand your way and focused on your career... But the phrasing made you look like a snobbish narcissist, who is an over-achiever; unrelatable and boastful, emotionless and manipulative. It was implied and smart people who could read between the lines will know this is the intended meaning. But the most important thing was.... It spoke about your depression and your medications.. I don’t think you want to make that public, yet..." Joe spoke looking closely at Talia.

Arthur held Talia’s hand as he knew she was stressed. He knew she won’t like her private affairs to be aired in public; especially something like her battling with depression.

" So Rachel was the one who commissioned to write the article?" Talia asked. It was a good thing that Joe stopped the publishing of that article. It would have been a PR disaster for her. These kind of articles that are veiled as compliments do more damage than articles bashing someone. People can accept faults and sometimes relate to them, but no one will be able to relate themselves with an over-achiever and so they would naturally hate them.

"Becky... He already told me that Rachel is not...who she shows herself as and I dismissed her. How stupid was I?" Joe looked at the floor rubbing his temples. If only he believed his wife at first. But at least now he has proof that Rachel lies. At least now he decided to check Rachel’s credibility and she showed her true colours! And the words he heard Rachel speaking to her mother... Yuck!

But... It shouldn’t be too late now for me and Becky, is it?

"Well... Long story short, with enough proof I confronted Rachel and she spun an amazing web of lies. It is amazing how manipulative she is and how foolish was I to get manipulated by her for this long. But I have proof and now I know for sure, I’m the stupidest person in the universe. I fired her if that’ means anything... " he sighed.