The Most Beautiful Girl in Cuba - Chanel Cleeton Page 0,47
common man, but how can you do that if you’ve only ever been seeped in privilege? That man cares about himself and little else.”
“He cares,” I reply. “People don’t understand that about him, but you can’t miss it when you work beside him.”
Hearst might have started his business with inherited money, but it’s easy to forget that when he started the San Francisco Examiner the paper was failing or that while he did replicate much of Pulitzer’s success, he also exceeded Pulitzer’s accomplishments. There’s no doubt that Hearst has set the new standard all other newspapers aim to emulate.
“So this is it. The end to our little arrangement.”
“Yes. I’m sorry I haven’t been more helpful.”
He waves me off without another word.
* * *
—
After I leave the meeting with Pulitzer, I head back to the Journal office. I walk through the newsroom, nerves filling me, heading toward Hearst’s office. I square my shoulders, raising my hand to knock on Hearst’s office door, a tremor sliding through my body.
I try to remember what Rafael told me, trust that Hearst will appreciate me coming here and confessing to spying for Pulitzer, that he’ll repay my honesty with forgiveness. All I can do is hope he won’t fire me.
“Come in,” Hearst calls out from the other side of his office.
I walk inside, closing the door gently behind me.
“May I have a word?” I ask him.
“Of course.”
“I need to talk to you about something. I—I haven’t been honest with you from the beginning.”
“I’m surprised to hear that. How have you been dishonest?”
“When I originally came to you asking for a job as a journalist, it was at Mr. Pulitzer’s behest. He wanted a spy in your newsroom and he proposed that I attempt to secure a job here and report back to him on the inner workings of the Journal.”
“I see. And what did you give him?”
“Details about the stories we were working on here and there. The fact that the Clemencia Arango story was wrong, for one.”
“What did he offer you in exchange for the information? Money?”
“A job when it was all over. I originally wanted to work for Pulitzer. I’ve admired the work he has done at the World for some time. I secured a meeting with him, but he wasn’t looking for another girl reporter, at least not one with my lack of experience. I knew it would be difficult to get a job in New York, but this is the center of journalism, and if I’m going to make a name for myself, it’s here.
“When he offered me a job, only if I was able to get work at the Journal, I thought about telling him no, but honestly, I wanted the opportunity he offered me too badly. So, I took it. I’m sorry. So sorry. You’ve given me chances when no one else did. I shouldn’t have betrayed that.”
Hearst is silent for a moment.
“You’ve done good reporting here, Grace,” he finally says. “You’ve grown as a writer. I don’t like that you were spying for Pulitzer. I figured there were World plants here—it’s inevitable with how many staff we have rotating out between our two papers and I certainly have my own at his newspaper—but I never imagined one of them was you.”
The rivalry between Hearst and Pulitzer has always seemed to be something Hearst takes in stride. Where Pulitzer is genuinely angry about Hearst’s challenge, Hearst treats the whole thing like a game he can win. Perhaps that’s the difference with growing up with wealth behind you, cushioning your every daring move, and having to make your own way in the world.
“I understand if you want me to clean out my things and leave. I understand if you can’t have a spy in your newsroom.”
“I don’t know that it needs to come to that. Have you told Pulitzer you’re done spying for him?”
“I have.”
“And will you be loyal from here on out? I’m willing to give you one more chance, but you need to devote yourself to the Journal. I need to know that I can trust you. That when you’re assigned a story or privy to sensitive information, you will guard it. If you’re going to write for the Journal, then I will accept nothing less now than your absolute loyalty. Do we have a deal?”
Relief fills me. From here on out, I will be a model employee for the Journal. I vow it.