The April Fools' News Story

Author's note: This is an entry for the Literotica April Fools Story Contest 2025. And yes, I know Loving Wives is a tough-marking category for a comp entry, but it is what it is ???? Thanks very much to the wonderful @NoTalentHack for taking the time to do a pre-read and making useful suggestions. All remaining errors and issues are mine alone.

The editorial meeting had gone okay. There were always tensions, of course. Brooke was the more junior reporter and tended to do the lighter, fluffier stories, but her stories got viewers, and she could never resist reminding Rebecca of that.

Never mind that Rebecca was ten years her senior.

Never mind that Rebecca was highly trained, hard-working, and also a great researcher as well as presenting brilliantly on camera.

Never mind the journalism awards sitting on Rebecca's shelf.

And never mind that Darryl, the Executive Producer, was Rebecca's husband, and they had worked their backsides off together to improve their ratings and keep the nightly news alive in this city. When Brooke batted her blue eyes at Darryl and tossed her blonde mane, she tended to get her way.

Rebecca knew better than to complain too much. "I can't let my feelings towards you interfere with my job," Darryl had said during their last argument. "I'm not saying yes to Brooke just because she's got great tits. But viewers love her and she does a good job, so I give her lots of the best stories. She'll head over to the competition in a heartbeat if we hold her back too much. It's no reflection on you."

"What if I got a boob job and went blonde?" Rebecca had asked, bitterly. She was dark haired, tanned, hazel eyes. She was attractive and (unlike Darryl) she kept herself in shape, but she knew she couldn't compete with Brooke, who was also seven years younger.

"Honestly? The viewers are superficial. They'd probably like it if you did. But I like you the way you are." Darryl had known that he was walking a fine line. Eventually they'd made love that night, but Rebecca had been quiet and had seemed to be going through the motions. Darryl, as usual, dropped quickly off to sleep afterwards.

Rebecca had stayed awake, thinking, while he snored.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The meeting was to plan out the next week before calling it quits for the weekend.

"Don't forget that April Fools' Day is coming up, too, the following week" said Darryl as they were packing up. "The opposition thrashed us last year with their stupid prank story. They got it all over the socials."

"I had a thought about that," said Rebecca. "But it's a bit edgy. We'd want to run it past Legal."

"Do tell, Bec," said Brooke. She seemed sincerely interested, and Rebecca knew why. There was a good chance that Darryl would give the story to her, because Brooke got all the 'fun' gigs.

"Well, I was thinking about all the moralists out there, banging the Bible to try and get elected. Raising their profile. Demonising everybody who's different. Closing down the clinics. And yet everybody knows that from the Archbishop downwards and right through the Government, they're all having affairs with each other."

"Fucking hypocrites," said Darryl, nodding.

"Hypocritically fucking," said Rebecca. "So I thought: what if we announced that there was going to be a public register of adulterous relationships, just like a public gifts register to avoid corrupting officials? We wouldn't put names and faces on it, but we could get Jacob to do up a graphic that looked like a realistic tree of all the declared relationships." Jacob was Brooke's fiancé, and head of tech at the station. It was a tightly-knit team.

"I like it," said Darryl, nodding. "The leaders of Government wouldn't, of course, but most of the viewers would think it was hilarious. They're sick of this moralistic crap."

"I like it too," said Brooke, smiling. "I can talk to Jacob."

"No, you're doing the story, Brooke, but Rebecca will do the research with Jacob," decided Darryl. "We want the research and graphics to look as realistic as possible, and Rebecca will do a better job of that: sorry Brooke. But Brooke you would present this better, because Rebecca doesn't do lighthearted stories. People will take her too seriously, and this needs to obviously be a joke story or we'll be in the shit."

Rebecca just nodded. She'd anticipated that split of labor: she had actually been counting on it.

"Some of us might be in the shit anyway," she said quietly to herself. The others didn't seem to hear.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

She and Jacob started work on the story the next Monday. Brooke didn't have to do much until Friday, when the filming would happen and the story would be packaged for legal clearance before the following Tuesday, April Fools' Day. In the meantime, of course there were a lot of other news stories to be getting on with.

Rebecca liked Jacob, and had often wondered how he had gotten together with Brooke. He was quiet, dark-haired and serious, much like herself. From what Rebecca had seen, Brooke tended to push him around a bit, talented though she was. He was happy being the technical wizard of the team, and he was well respected for it. He had already been here when Brooke joined, fresh out of some junior roving reporter's role interstate, and he had helped her in the background, polishing up her stories, giving her a place to live, supporting her growth into the station glamour queen. She professed to love him, but Rebecca wondered if that would last. Brooke was made for higher things. Or at least, that was what Brooke thought.

"I can mock up a web page that looks like an official adultery register," said Jacob. "We can even create it in real life, so that nobody else grabs the URL once we run the story. Just give me an idea of the real web of cheaters out there: that will help us make a fake one for legal approval. The more truthful it looks, the more relaxed Legal will be about any potential defamation issues. Maybe talk to Jeanette in Admin?"

"Good idea," said Rebecca, and flashed him a smile. Not the first time, she wondered what Jacob would be like to live with. Apart from being a hell of a nice guy, he was handsome, keeping his dark hair nicely styled, keeping fit, and wearing nice clothes. Not like most tech guys she knew.

Stop it, Rebecca, she thought to herself. You're meant to be researching a story about adultery, not fantasizing about it.

Jeanette thought the idea was a hoot, and threw her resources behind it. She was a bubbly, freckled redhead and a seriously good networker.

"There's a girls' lunch tomorrow," she said. "Half the Executive Assistants who matter in this city will be there. I won't let on about the story, but I'll steer the conversation that way. Leave it with me."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On Wednesday morning, Jeanette collared Rebecca and made her report. She proffered a small voice recorder and a sketch pad full of names linked together. Many of them had multiple links to various other people.

"I took a highly illegal recording and sketched this out last night. Everybody in this town and beyond is sleeping with each other. We can probably extend this to the President, the Pope, or the King of England if you like. I've never seen such a good argument for safe sex."

Her face changed. "And..." She stopped, hesitating.

"What?"

"I don't have any evidence. But a couple of people asked me about Darryl and Brooke."

Rebecca felt something twist inside her, but she kept her expression neutral.

Stay calm, she thought. I don't have any hard evidence either. Just an ever-growing suspicion.

"Let me know if you see anything on that, Jeanette. And thanks. You're a star." She gave her a hug, and walked back to her desk.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By Wednesday afternoon, she had everything ready for Jacob to put on the website and create some graphics for the story.

"Just leave the names off the public-facing version, obviously, but I thought you'd like to see what the research has suggested. Pretty interesting, huh?" She sat back and watched Jacob as he scanned the material.

"You're not wrong," he said slowly. "Who would have thought that about the Bishop and the actor? Or the Chief of Police and the... are these three different volleyball coaches? All together?"

"I know, right? The mind boggles. What boring lives we lead."

Suddenly Jacob was still. This is it, she thought. He's spotted it.

He looked back up at her. "You don't have names against these two." His voice was flat.

"I don't have enough evidence yet."

"Then why did you include them?"

"Because they concern both of us intimately." She kept her voice cool, expressionless, but her eyes told a different story.

Jacob looked back at her, his face shifting as he thought things through. He reached out, took her hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"I think we need to know." His voice was soft, but resolute. He reached into his desk drawer and took out a small square of plastic. "I hate to do this, but can you slip this into his car? I'll do the same with hers."

She nodded, accepting the tag. She reached back out and touched his arm, just for a moment. "Thank you, Jacob. Let's compare notes on that in a couple of days. I'll get on with writing the script for Brooke, if you do up the website and graphics."

As she turned away, Jacob said quietly, "Both versions."

She paused in her stride, just for a second. But she didn't look back at him.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Filming the story on Friday was a breeze. Brooke did some vox pops in a local mall, asking shoppers whether prominent figures should be held accountable for their private lives, particularly if they were moralizing in public. Within half an hour, she had all the grabs she needed. The rest of the story was filmed in the studio, using a green screen with Jacob's graphics in the background, including shots from the fake website. The website was already live and tested, but hidden so that nobody could stumble across it. Brooke nailed it all on the first take, and Rebecca was impressed despite herself. She might resent Brooke her looks and easy success, but she was genuinely talented.

Darryl was over the moon. "Great work everybody! I can't believe we've done this four days out alongside all the other daily news stories. Shoot this to Legal and hopefully it sails through." That night, he made a point of treating everybody to drinks at the local bar, and speaking to each of them individually.

"It was a great idea, and you and Jacob put it together beautifully," he said to Rebecca, and then went off to pump Brooke up some more for her work.

Jacob had stayed back late at the studio, and just returned a thumbs-up emoji to Rebecca's text mentioning the praise from the boss.

She stayed for a second drink, but then gave Darryl a quiet nudge. "Should we head home?"

He gave her a big smile. "Sure! Just a minute. I'll do my rounds with the team."

She watched him quickly work his way around to wish everybody a great weekend. When he got to Brooke, he leaned forward and whispered something in her ear. She nodded, almost imperceptibly, and then loudly wished both him and Rebecca goodbye.

Hmm.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Early on Saturday afternoon, Rebecca sent Jacob a careful text message. "I just had a thought about that story. Darryl's gone off to a golf game with his mates, but I won't mind chewing the fat with you or Brooke. Give me a call if you're free, otherwise no drama."

Jacob called within a few minutes. "Brooke's out for a coffee with a friend. Apparently. But their cars are both parked near a motel near the edge of town. Can you meet me there?"

It took a few seconds before she could find words. "Jacob, can you pick me up? I don't think I should drive right now."

"Sure." His voice was expressionless, rigid.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Half an hour later, they were sitting quietly together against a wall, out of sight of the motel occupants. There were faint sounds coming from a room near them. Rebecca recognized Darryl's distinctive grunts, and she presumed that the moans were from Brooke.

The curtains were drawn, but there was a gap in the center. She touched Jacob on the arm and signaled him to stay where he was, and then she crept up to the window, holding her phone up to the gap to record some video for a minute. She had a quick look at what she'd recorded, grimaced, took a few more still photos, and then moved back to Jacob.

"Are they...?" Jacob started to ask, and then trailed off. He knew the answer.

"Yes. We can go. Come back to my place for a coffee," she said flatly. "We need to plan."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

They watched the video together, sitting at her kitchen table. It showed Brooke astride Darryl in cowboy position, her ample breasts bouncing up and down in time with the squeaking of the cheap hotel bed. Both of their faces were visible. Even with the low sound quality, it was obvious that Brooke was exaggerating her pleasure for Darryl's benefit. Rebecca's mouth twisted in disgust. Could he not see that he was being used? Did he not care?

She sat in silence for a minute, thinking.

"Let's talk about how we've feeling," she said. "I want to kill somebody right now. Probably Darryl. He's lucky I don't own a gun."

"I feel numb, mostly," said Jacob quietly. "I'll feel angry later. I need to stay calm. I don't trust myself."

She took his hand and squeezed it softly. "I might almost suggest we have a revenge fuck so that we can channel our emotions away from violence. But I don't want to stoop to that level. I want to fuck for love, not payback."

He gave her a half-smile. "Hold that thought. If I was wanting to have a revenge fuck with anybody, it would be with you. But we've got other things to do."

They talked some more, working out their strategy from here.

After a little bit, Jacob looked at his watch, and stood to go. "It wouldn't be good for Darryl to get back now," he said. "I'll get on with things." He hesitated, and then offered her a hug, which she accepted. They stood together, arms around each other, for a minute. She could feel his heart beating: it seemed slow, calming.

"Not a word to Brooke," she said as they separated. "Not a word to Darryl, or anybody." He nodded briefly and left, striding purposefully to his car.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Monday was a busy day at work as usual, but all went well with the stories of the day, and Darryl had some news for them at the production meeting.

"Legal have okayed the April Fools' story," he said, "so well done again all. Also, there's a VIP shindig at the Governor's place tomorrow evening. I'll take Brooke and a cameraman. We'll be pressing the flesh but we'll also get some footage of the social set mingling on April Fools' Day, while the viewers at home will be watching our story about too much mingling!" He laughed loudly at his own weak joke.

Rebecca smiled at him, but inside she was wondering how she could possibly have married the man.

"Perhaps we can use the footage in a follow up story, if all goes well," she said, and everybody nodded.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tuesday, April Fools' Day, turned out to be a busy day with lots of local news. There was an election coming, and the politics in the State was heating up. Lots of announcements, more moralizing, and even some demonizing of fringe groups, coming from candidates who should have been better than that. Rebecca wondered if their April Fools' Day story for the evening news was a bit too edgy in this hothouse environment, but then she also thought that it needed to have some 'cut through' given the volume of noise all the real news was generating. Plus, of course there were lots of other April Fools' pranks to report on. They would be running a short piece about that in a separate story, a little after their own story ran. Brooke spent much of the afternoon filming that piece, while Rebecca prepared the more serious stories.

She hardly had a word to chat with Jacob, but she and Darryl passed him in the corridor during the afternoon, while they were talking about arrangements for the evening bulletin. Rebecca would be acting as the Executive Producer for the bulletin while Darryl and Brooke headed to the social event at the Governor's mansion.

"Is that April Fools' story all queued up?" asked Darryl as they passed Jacob.

"Yep. Just tweaked the graphics a little," Jacob replied. "Script is the same as approved by Legal. It will go out on socials just after it's aired."

Darryl nodded, and they kept moving.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Darryl surveyed the crowd with satisfaction, champagne glass in hand. He had managed to catch up with the Governor as well as several movers and shakers around town, and he was taking a quick breather. He could see Brooke across the other side of the room, distinctive in a modest but shapely aquamarine dress, her blonde hair in a stylish professional bun. Both dress and hair were smart choices: there were lots of blondes here, but not many so classy. He knew he wasn't the only one looking.

It was a good crowd. Lots of the who's who of the State were here, and the conversations were flowing. Political and business deals were being made, and a bit of personal politics as well.

His phone beeped. It was just a news alert from his own station. The April Fools' story had been pushed out on socials. Darryl suspected that a few people here might be put out a bit once they saw it, but that would likely be later, after the party. Still, their cameraman was roaming the crowd, and maybe he would pick something up if any wallflowers were idly checking their phones. Rebecca's idea to do something edgy had been a good one, even if it made him a little uncomfortable.

"You don't think that Bec or Jacob are onto us, do you?" Brooke had asked after their session on Saturday. She had been lying back on the motel bed, her large, firm tits pointed at the ceiling, dark pubic hair matted with their fluids, face still flushed from their acrobatics. Mostly her acrobatics, to be fair: Darryl knew that he had to get into better shape.

"Nah," Darryl had replied confidently. "Rebecca would go apeshit if she found out, but we've been pretty careful."

One thing that had attracted him to Rebecca was that she was so straight. She was gorgeous but artless. She didn't do intrigue, which was refreshing in a world of grasping people. Mind you, it got a bit boring. She could hardly blame him for taking up with Brooke, her polar opposite in many ways, just for a bit of excitement. Not that she would see it like that, of course, but a man has needs. At least that was what he told himself when he was trying to not feel guilty.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Over on the other side of the party, Brooke was having a great time. Her star had been rising, and she was enjoying it. Tonight's April Fool's story wasn't going to hurt her profile at all: she couldn't believe that Rebecca had given it up that easily. All of this doing the right thing that she lived by. Brooke had been raised to believe that too, and sometimes her inner voice reminded her of that. But she could see that that wasn't how people actually behaved. If you wanted the finer things in life, you had to reach out and take them, just as Brooke was taking Darryl. Darryl wasn't a long-term prospect of course: he was older, pudgy, and a bit of a bore, but he was a useful enabler for her career. She had to be a bit careful with Jacob, but she would soon be in a position where she could leave him without too much damage, although he was a hell of a nice guy and she would regret hurting him.

Lately, her inner voice had learned to just shut up.

She had been chatting gaily to some of her coterie, interrupted by various well-wishers and VIPs who professed to be fans of her nightly reporting. Perhaps some of them were, but she knew that most of them were as insincere as she was. Lots of air-kisses and fatuous praise.

She hadn't paid much attention to the research that Rebecca had done behind the story, but she knew that many of the movers and shakers here tonight were among the targets. That was fine: most people would enjoy the joke, and perhaps have a little shiver at the thought of some of their secrets getting out, before they realized that it was all a prank and that there was no public register planned. Good April Fools' Day pranks were like rides at the amusement park: just enough thrills and spills to get the heart pumping, but then you made it home alive.

Her phone pinged in her bag, and she glanced at it briefly. The story was out on socials: good. She quickly resent it from her own accounts, which had more exposure than the staid old station accounts. Hopefully this one would push her a bit more into a new audience, as many people didn't bother to watch news stories unless they had a bit of zing to them.

She needed to use this in-person time at the reception better: it was half-over already. She put her phone away and started circulating with more intent.

After a little while, her phone was pinging again quite a lot, and she had to apologize to the (rich and important) man she was talking to as she fished it out and silenced it. It was just social media alerts from the story: the top one was from a friend who had just written "Whoa! Bold! ROFL!" with some laughing emojis. All good. She finished up her conversation with another smile of apology, and moved on to her next target, Richard, who happened to be the Lieutenant Governor and was widely understood to be the future Governor. And who had recently become a widower at a relatively young age. He was prime material for her attention.

Richard, buttressed by the widespread public sympathy for the loss of his wife, was also a crusader for better public morals as part of the campaign to lift his profile. The current Governor was aging and was on his third marriage, the first two having ended in tawdry circumstances.

"How are you this evening, Richard?"

"Not bad, Brooke. Anything I should be worried about from you tonight?" His last interview with the station, conducted by Rebecca, had been pretty tough on him.

"You should know that I'm all sweetness and light compared to Bec," she said with a smile. "And this is just a social event." Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that the cameraman was filming them from a distance. Which was great, although she needed to make sure that she wasn't overly familiar, in case Jacob happened to see the footage. She also saw that there was another woman moving towards them. Maria was the current wife of the Governor. She was dressed in a sensational crimson dress, and she had a grim look on her face.

Brooke forced herself to concentrate on making her words count before they were interrupted by whatever Maria had on her mind.

"Richard, I just want to wish you the best in the upcoming elections. Sincerely. Although you seem to have it in the bag already."

Brooke started to add some more flattery, when an angry hand slapped her hard across the cheek. Surprised and off-balance, she fell backwards to the floor. She sat blinking in shock, her cheek stinging, and looked up to see Maria standing over her, mouth twisted in rage. There were murmurs of surprise rising around them, and she was dimly aware of people taking out their phones to video the scene.

Richard was obviously bewildered, but offered his hand to Brooke to help her get up, before having it slapped away by Maria.

"Don't you help that bitch!" Maria snarled. "You've probably been fucking her too, haven't you? And here I was feeling guilty about what we did." Richard started looking horrified, and stepped back a pace.

Brooke was completely perplexed, but did her best to smooth the situation. Whatever was going on, this was far too public. "Maria, I'm sorry that you're upset, but I don't know what you're talking about," she said shakily, as she climbed to her feet. "I haven't done anything with Richard and I don't know anything about you and him. Didn't know..." she amended weakly, as her brain started to catch up, too slowly.

Her internal monologue started to intrude. Shit, it was saying. Shit shit shit shit. Richard and Maria are having an affair. And Maria's husband is finding out tonight. Along with the rest of the world, apparently.

"Didn't know?" Maria spat the words back in her face. "Then what the fuck is this? She held up her phone.

"Huh?" said Brooke. Again, her brain was starting to catch up, but too slowly.

Maria fiddled with her phone and then held it up again, a video playing.

It was Brooke's April Fools' story. Why was that upsetting Maria so much? She wasn't mentioned. Brooke heard her own voice go through the script. Saw the same graphics... wait.

Not the same graphics.

The graphics that Jacob had prepared had been suggestive of a complex web of relationships, but all carefully vague.

These graphics had the same basic form, but showed real faces. Familiar faces. Half of the faces at the party tonight seemed to be in the story. Including Maria and Richard. And the last two faces shown in the story were...

Brooke and Darryl.

She wanted to shut her eyes, but she couldn't help noting one other thing about that picture. It was blurred so that only their faces were clearly visible, with some cheap, colorful curtains to each side. But it was obvious what they were doing, and she remembered the curtains clearly from the motel on Saturday. Somebody had taken a photo or a video of them hard at it, and there was an implicit threat in the way that it had been included in the story.

She saw Darryl's horrified face in the growing crowd around her. She looked at him helplessly. "Darryl I swear that's not what..."

She trailed off. That's not what? If Bec wrote this, it's likely all true, not just the stuff about me and Darryl. And it's on the web, and in the socials, so everybody knows. You can't take it back. Suck it up, princess. Her inner voice could be such a bitch sometimes.

"Never mind." She gave him a weak smile. "I guess this will be an April Fools' Day to remember."

She turned back to Maria and Richard, and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry that we caused you and others pain in our relentless pursuit of the truth. Sometimes our news stories take on a life of their own, but we stand by them regardless. Maria, I can't see where your husband is right now, but please thank him for his kind hospitality. I'll see myself out."

With that, she squared her shoulders, picked up her handbag, gathered the remains of her dignity, and walked away, face still smarting. She would not allow herself to cry.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Back at the station, the phones were ringing off the hook. Rebecca had asked Jeanette to stay back late and triage the calls, while Jacob was managing the online interactions. Most of the calls were just people ringing to express their outrage or their enjoyment of the piece, depending on their point of view, but some of them were interesting enough for Rebecca to handle. Within an hour of the story airing, she had further details about most of the affairs alleged in the graphics, plus a huge number of new allegations. And the great majority of callers were applauding the station for calling out the hypocrisy of the political and religious classes.

Jacob was allowing comments to be made on social media and also gathering a treasure trove of information, but he was also having to make quick decisions about what to hide or delete for potential legal issues. In the end, he had to turn off the interactions, just posting a blanket request for any more information about the 'matters alleged' to be put into email.

Rebecca's phone lit up with the phone call that she had been dreading: Darryl. She was tempted to just flip him off, but it had to be faced.

"Yes?" she answered, curtly.

He spoke in a low, bitter tone. "I've been dismissed. I'm not even allowed to go back to the office. The Chair of the Board was at the event, saw the whole thing play out, watched the report online. Congratulations. You've managed to sabotage our marriage and my job."

She was prepared for this. "Who did the sabotage? You did, Darryl. It wasn't me on that cheap motel bed, fucking a more junior staff member."

"She came onto me..." Rebecca had never noticed before how whiny his voice sounded.

"You have all the power in that relationship. Had. Grow the fuck up. I expect you to sleep somewhere else far away tonight, and then you can contact me to arrange to move out. At least you'll get a good separation bonus, because you have shares in the station and the ratings will be going through the roof based on the reactions so far." She hung up, disgusted.

There was a noise behind them, and the newsroom door suddenly opened. Jeanette, about to answer another call, froze and instead looked at Rebecca meaningfully. She turned around to see Brooke, standing and watching them. She had obviously come from the party and she was in a bit of a state, her beautiful dress disarranged, hair disheveled. A vivid, angry mark in the shape of an open hand was showing through the make-up on her cheek. But her eyes were clear, if a little red.

"Brooke," said Rebecca, "I..."

She stopped, unsure about how she wanted to play this. She was not going to apologize. She was furious at Brooke. But neither was she going to gloat at her public humiliation. And what had she just said to Darryl about power relationships? She needed to act like the senior here.

Brooke forestalled her. "Jacob, Bec," she started, and then corrected herself. "Rebecca. I want to say something

She drew a breath.

"I'm sorry to you both. Jacob, I betrayed you. Rebecca, I fucked your husband. I'm not going to make excuses. Everybody else in that story will be making excuses right now. I was wrong, and I'm sorry. I'm probably going to move interstate. Perhaps I can use my infamy to find a new job somewhere. Jacob, if it's okay by you, it will just take me a couple of days to pack up my things at home."

Jacob nodded curtly. "There are a few things I want to say to you, Brooke, but I don't trust myself right now. Give it a few months. I'll stay elsewhere for two nights and then I expect you to be gone and the place in good order."

Rebecca was feeling torn. The bitch had helped destroy her marriage, but at least she apparently knew how to confess gracefully. Unlike Darryl. And maybe there was a chance for her, somewhere down the line.

Not that she believed that Brooke was really sorry. Not yet. She still needed a bit more of a lesson in good manners.

She stepped forward. Brooke first shrank back a little, perhaps expecting another slap, but relaxed slightly when Rebecca instead took her arm, holding it firmly as she took a closer look at Brooke's cheek.

"Jeanette," Rebecca said over her shoulder, "just let the phones ring. Could you please grab the ice-pack out of the fridge?"

"I assume this was from an angry spouse?" she asked. "She really got you a beauty."

"Maria, the Governor's wife, no less. But she admitted her affair with the Lieutenant Governor in the 'conversation', so you did well there. Even though you'll get your asses sued off," she said bitterly.

"We've validated most of the allegations already to a reasonable standard through the calls received," said Rebecca quietly. "I'm not expecting real legal problems from this, even though there will be a lot of bluster."

Jeanette arrived with the ice pack and a cloth. Together they led Brooke to the staff break room and sat her down while she held the ice to her face. She seemed a little dizzy.

There was a big TV in the room. It was set permanently to the national news channel, so that they didn't lose themselves in local issues too much. Rebecca sat down, not far from Brooke, and watched for a bit. She ignored Brooke.

Stories about war in the Middle East, inflation, national politics... Rebecca felt numb, wrung out, and this wasn't helping. She was just about to go back to the newsroom when suddenly a familiar face appeared on the screen. It was Brooke at the Governor's house, being slapped to the ground, on the national news.

Fascinated, she watched the rest of the story. The Lieutenant Governor had resigned already, his position untenable in the face of an affair with his boss' wife. The Archbishop had gone to ground. There was a close up of their web-page, the shot of Brooke and Darryl, and then a repeat of Brooke being slapped to the ground.

Rebecca muted the television, and then turned to look at Brooke.

"That was quite the slap," she said. "I'm sorry, I didn't anticipate that happening."

Brooke grunted. Then she looked sharply at Rebecca. "You mean you anticipated everything else?"

Rebecca nodded. "The Governor hosts a party every other April Fools' Day, but it was cancelled because of COVID and then a storm the last two times. It was bound to be a big event this year. I knew Darryl wouldn't be able to resist taking you and a cameraman. That's why we timed the social media for then."

"You didn't even know that I would do the story!" Brooke was sounding a bit whiny too.

"Of course you were going to do the story! You were jumping out of your skin to do it. Darryl was always going to give it to you and your big tits. And I knew that nobody else would have any better ideas."

"How long have you known about the affair?" asked Brooke wonderingly.

"Since it started. But I needed proof, and I needed Jacob to be part of the process."

Brooke just stared back, her eyes wide in realization.

Rebecca got up, turned the television off, and retrieved some painkillers from her handbag. She poured a glass of water and offered it with the pills to Brooke, who accepted them with a faint smile and a lift of her eyebrow.

"I get it," she said. "Gracious in victory."

"No, it's just being civilized," Rebecca corrected her. She sighed, and sat down again.

"Brooke, I don't know if you want to hear what I have to say. But I'll say it. You've blown your chances here. You won't be coming back. This is a big State size-wise, but it's a small town, and you will be remembered as the reporter who did that story about marital affairs while she was having an affair. And yes, I organized the story because I'm pissed at you for fucking my husband and I needed to take decisive action against both of you. But it's not a victory. I'm not gloating. It's just what needed to happen as part of the collapse of my marriage. It's a lose-lose."

She softened her tone. "That said, once you've left the State, I'm not going to be your lifelong enemy. I wish you well. I hope that you get a new job, although you might need to wait until you're off the national news. I'll even write you a fucking reference, and I won't mention you screwing my husband, because I'll make the generous assumption that you'll have grown up a bit. You've got great professional skills and you could be a good reporter if you don't fuck around."

Rebecca got up, and went back to help the others.

After a while, Brooke came quietly out of the staff room. She went to her desk, and started packing up her things. She made several trips out to her car, and then came back inside. She was very subdued.

"I'm going now," she said quietly. "Rebecca, thank you for what you said in there. I'll let you know when I've crossed the border. And I'm sorry again to you both. Really. I know you won't believe me, and that's okay."

She shook her head ruefully, and forced a small smile. "And you guys... you just pulled off the Best Fucking April Fools' News Prank Ever. It will just... just take me a little while to come to terms with being the April Fool."

She turned and left, closing the door quietly behind her.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The rest of the week was frantic. The Station had lost two key staff, and the news cycle was insane. Rebecca took on the Executive Producer role, kept doing news reports herself, and brought in some temporary staff to help out. She also had to deal with the fall-out from the April Fools' story. Of course, everybody in the know had worked out that Jacob and Rebecca had both had a lot to do with it, but in the circumstances they were all too happy to blame Darryl and Brooke. And the ratings were sky-high as people followed the unfolding dramas around the various scandals that had been unleashed, so the shareholders were happy with all the attention.

It wasn't until the next Sunday that Jacob and Rebecca had the chance to sit down and talk in private. Brooke and Darryl had both left town. True to her word, Brooke had messaged from interstate, and had included a photo of herself in front of a well-known landmark to prove it. Rebecca had no idea where Darryl had gone, and didn't care. The divorce would be a painful experience, but she would worry about that later.

"So how are you now?" she asked Jacob. They were at her house again, on the outside patio. The sun was heading to the horizon. She had poured them both wine.

"Shattered, exhausted, drained," he replied. "But liberated."

He went quiet for a minute, but Rebecca gave him time to continue his thoughts. She liked that about their conversations. Neither of them felt like they had to rush in to fill a silence.

"You were unbelievable, Rebecca," he continued. "Unbelievable. You are the most dangerous person I know, and I mean that in a good way. You do realize that as well as confronting our personal problems, this has changed the local political landscape?"

"Not for long," she replied. "People are people. They will all keep screwing each other but pretending that they're as pure as driven snow. And Jacob, you helped. As did Jeanette."

"We have to find a way to thank her," he said.

"She says that she's already had her reward in terms of new gossip. The town is buzzing," said Rebecca. "But yes, we will."

They let the silence linger again, before Rebecca eventually broke it.

"We talked about a revenge fuck. Did you mean what you said?"

"About you being somebody I would do it with? Yes. Did you mean what you said?" He looked at her, waiting intently.

"About wanting to fuck for love, not revenge? Yes. But..."

"But?"

"But," she continued, "I might let you take me out on a date sometime soon. And if that goes well, another date after that. And then we'll see."

"If that works out, I might have to move stations," he said. "It turns out it's not a good idea to be in a relationship with somebody that you work with."

"Who knew, right?!" She gave a low, bitter laugh. But she looked back at him, and nodded.

"We'll talk about that if the time comes, Jacob. Let's just get through the next little while, hey?"

They sat in companiable silence together, wines in hand, watching the sunset. There was a long road ahead.

Thank you for reading! Please vote and comment!