Forbes had been hounding you for over a week now but Stephen didn't expect you to believe them this soon. He's spent months upon months building up trust with you, he thought you two had an unshakable bond but apparently not.

The line went dead a long time ago but you still hadn't spoken a word to him. It sent a chill down his spine and sent his stomach turning into a thousand different knots, he was caught in his mountain of lies and now he was stuck.

Stephen was sitting at the opposite end of your desk, his arms folded on the dark wood and his face buried in said arms. His chest heaved with several hiccuping sobs, for once when he cried it wasn't to work an angle, he was genuinely afraid of the consequences of his actions.

He only lifted his head when your voice perked up uncharacteristically cruel to ask him how many stories of his he faked. He swallowed thickly, looking up at you as if you just struck him and from his point of view it would've been better if you did.

"N-None of them! I-I don't know what that guy has against me but I didn't–" He was stopped when you raised a finger to silence him, he bit down on his lower lip to suppress another sob—there was no way to wriggle his way out of this one.

"I embellished some meaningless stories that's it. I didn't lie about anything real." He insisted even if you both knew it wasn't the truth. He wanted to say 'it was your fault as editor for letting the stories go to print' but bit his tongue for fear of making things worse.