I Lost Our Child Chapter 22
By the time I got to the office, the conference room was already full.
The director, the company’s legal team, and the head of the program were all there.
Ava’s manager sat across from them.
When she saw me come in, she sighed dramatically.
“Reporter Alessa, Ava is in very poor health right now.”
“We don’t want to assign blame. We only hope you’ll admit your interview approach was inappropriate and issue a public apology.”
I pulled out a chair and sat down.
“And if I don’t?”
She put on a troubled expression.
“You asked the questions. They’re right there in the video.”
“Ava had her incident the same night she gave that interview. You can’t deny that.”
I nodded.
“I did ask those questions.”
“But who gave them to me, and why I was the one asked to conduct the interview—that needs to be made clear, too.”
Her expression shifted.
The program director turned on the projector.
The first document was the interview invitation our department had sent to Ava’s studio.
They had replied quickly.
Besides confirming the schedule, they had specifically requested that I be the lead interviewer.
The second document was the final outline Ava’s manager had revised and sent back the day before the interview.
The first three questions at the top matched the video word for word.
At the time, one of my coworkers had found it odd and left a note in the margin:
[Confirmed by their team. Proceed with this version.]
The manager stared at the screen.
“The outline was only for reference.”
I didn’t argue.
“Just play the raw footage.”
The unedited video appeared on the screen.
In it, I first explained that the questions came from top-voted fan comments.
Ava smiled and said that was fine.