Authors: Mallory Monroe
When Mo walked into the office and saw Nikki standing there, his heart swelled with emotion.
He’d only been away from her for a little over a day, but he had missed her terribly. But why, he wondered, would she be here?
At Jake’s office?
Nikki’s eyes opened when he walked in.
And she could tell by his hesitancy that he knew, just by her presence alone, that they had a problem.
On top of the problem they already had.
But he managed a smile anyway.
“Hello, Nikki,” he said.
“Hi,” she said and folded her arms.
She tried to smile too but the obvious agony on her face wouldn’t let it through.
Even after Mo spoke to Jake and walked up to her, pulling her into his arms, she still couldn’t bring herself to smile.
“You okay?” he asked her.
She looked into his eyes.
“Not really, no.”
Mo may have suspected it when he first walked in, but when he saw her despair, he knew it was true.
His entire countenance changed.
“What is it now?” he asked so wretchedly that Nikki could feel his anguish.
And she couldn’t speak.
He turned to his friend.
“Jake?”
Jake shook his head.
“Another woman, Mo, has accused you of sexual harassment.”
Mo’s hands slowly left Nikki’s waist and he just stood there.
Then he unbuttoned his suit coat, walked over to the chair in front of Jake’s desk, and sat down.
He glanced at Jake.
Then he looked at Nikki.
“Who?” he asked her.
“You’ve got to fight it,” she said as the tears began to fall.
“You’ve got to stand up and fight this, Mo.”
“Who is it this time?”
She hesitated.
The last person it needed to be.
“Judge French,” she said.
Mo just sat there, and then leaned back as if he was dumbstruck.
“
Jameela
?” he said.
She nodded.
“Yes.”
His face grew somber, almost unnaturally gloomy.
“She said she had an affair with you while you were still married,” she said.
“Is it true?”
He didn’t answer.
Given his anguish, Nikki wasn’t sure if he could.
“She said she discontinued the affair when she found out you were married.
But you still wanted her.
You harassed her so badly that she became physically ill.
And her story checked out, Mo.
The Gazette obtained her medical records that clearly indicates she was hospitalized due to what the doctor at the time called job-related stress.
Her hospitalization occurred at the exact same time of her alleged problems with you.
Is she telling the truth, Mo?”
He looked up at her, his face so devastated that he didn’t look well.
But Nikki had to hear it from him.
“Is it true, Mo?”
Mo let out a guttural exhale.
“No,” he said.
“So she’s lying too?”
He paused.
“Yes.”
If it was any other man Nikki would have shouted, “bullshit!”
But it wasn’t any other man.
It was Mo.
She went over to his chair and knelt down to him.
He had to understand the stakes.
“You’ve got to tell me something, Mo,” Nikki pleaded.
“Why would she do this to you?”
Mo ran his hand across his face.
“I don’t know,” he said in a voice filled with drain.
“Did she come on to you and you rebuffed her before?”
“No.”
“Did she ever do anything that caused you to reprimand her or---”
“No, Nikki.
No.”
“Then why?
Why is she doing this?”
“I don’t know,” he said again.
“Well, I don’t know either.
And I’ve got to write the story.”
“Write your story.
Just tell the facts.”
“But you aren’t giving me anything!
The facts will bury you.
You’ve got to give me something to hold onto to!”
“What do you want from me, Nikki?
What?
She’s lying.
It didn’t happen.”
“Then you need to call a press conference and say so.”
“There’s nothing to say.”
“Say you’re innocent, say something!”
“I said I didn’t harass her or anybody else.
I said it already, Nikki.
What more do you want?”
He said this so heartfelt that Nikki was taken aback.
She’d never seen him in such a state. Then he stood up and began heading for the door.
Nikki stood up too.
“Where are you going?” she asked, astounded that he would just leave.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said.
“But Mo!”
He stopped at the door, his back to Nikki, his hand squeezing the knob, everything within him fighting back the tears.
“I’ll talk to you later,” he said firmly, and then hurried out of the door.
Nikki moved to go after him, but Jake stopped her.
“Give him some space, Nikki,” he told her.
“He doesn’t want you to see him like this.”
“Like what?”
“Broken,” Jake said.
“He and Jameela used to be really close.”
Nikki looked at Jake.
“They were lovers?” she asked him.
“No.
He was a married man, remember?
They were really close friends.
And Mo loved her.
But like every woman he’s ever loved, she’s managed, by making these allegations against him, to break his heart, too.”
“But he claimed he never even had a romantic relationship with Jameela French.
Why would she be capable of breaking his heart if they were nothing more than friends?”
“He loves his friends, Nikki.
It’s a betrayal.
It’s heartbreaking for him.
When you break his heart, you’ll see what I mean.”
Nikki looked at him.
“I’m not going to break his heart.”
But Jake stood by what he said.
Simply because every other woman in Mo’s life had betrayed him.
Simply because of that.
And it was all so dizzying for Nikki.
And Mo didn’t seem to understand.
This woman, this judge, could destroy him.
They were somehow weathering the storm of Tonya Wright and Marlene Wingate okay, but Jameela French was a cyclone compared to them.
She could devastate his career, his good name, everything he worked so hard to build up forever.
And Nikki couldn’t just stand by and let that happen.
She knew, as soon as he walked out of that door, that it was going to be up to her.
She knew right then and there that if the truth was going to come out, and it had to come out if Mo stood a chance in hell to make it through this, then she would have to force it out.
Later that same day she asked Phil to hold off on publishing the story one extra day, so that she could corroborate one final detail.
Phil agreed.
She then phoned Mo and asked if he would come over to her condo and meet with her that same night.
Mo agreed.
And then she telephoned Jameela French.
And the stage was set.
FIFTEEN
Jameela French, in a red business suit, sat nervously on Nikki’s sofa.
She said this was one of the hardest things she’d ever had to do.
Nikki wasn’t exactly a tower of strength, either, but she wasn’t about to explain why.
As far as the good judge was concerned, Nikki the reporter was attempting to get the judge on record as he confronted, face to face, his accuser.
Mo was late, ringing her bell fourteen after their eight o’clock meet time.
Nikki, dressed in the same skirt suit she wore to work that day, walked to the door slowly but confidently, knowing that fireworks, one way or another, were about to begin.
But when she opened that door and saw Mo, her heart dropped.
He was smiling greatly (quite a feat for a stern man like him) and was bearing a dozen red roses.
“For you,” he said, and handed them to her.
He was dressed casually for a change, in a pair of khaki pants and a brown pull-over shirt, and before she could even invite him in he stepped across the threshold and pulled her to him.
“I know I’ve been a bastard,” he said.
“And you have every right to not want to have anything more to do with me.
But I’m hoping you’d reconsider.
Please.
I don’t know what I’ll do without you.”
Nikki could not believe it.
Her life always ran in reverse.
When she needed him to be prince charming, he was a bastard.
When she needed him to be a bastard, he was unbelievably charming.
“Oh, Mo,” she said.
“Don’t say that.”
“It's true.
You want the truth, that’s the truth.
I don’t know what my life would be like without you, Nikki.
I love you.
See?
I’ve said it.
I’m coming around.”
Nikki could not believe it.
And before she could say anything at all, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her long and passionately, his sex so full against her that even she forgot that they had a spectator.
But they had a spectator.
She forced herself to pull away from him.
“Mo, there’s something we’ve got to discuss.”
He was still pulling on her, kissing her on her neck, her chest.
“I know, honey.”
“There’s someone here, Mo, to see you.”
He stopped kissing her and looked at her.
Then he looked beyond her.
When his eyes met the eyes of Nikki’s guest, he quickly released her.
“
Jameela
?”
he asked with a puzzled look on his face.
Jameela stood to her feet.
“Hello, Monty,” she said, a look of resolve on her face.
Mo was dumbstruck.
He gazed at Jameela still in a state of unbelief, but then he stared at Nikki.
“The truth has to come out, Mo.
You’ve got to confront her here and now.”
“The truth?” Mo asked.
“Yes.
That’s the only way you can survive this.”
“You call this truth?”
“Tell her, in front of me, that you didn’t do it.
Tell her that you could never do the things she claims.
Just tell her, Mo, and I’ll believe you.”
He looked up, at the ceiling, and then he looked down at Nikki.
She could tell he had a zillion things he wanted to tell her, and all probably unfavorable, but he didn’t say a word.
He just folded his arms and stared at her.