Gold, Fire & Refinement

Chapter Thirty

"Things do not change; we change." ~Henry David Thoreau

Zarah drove to THN that day with the top down on her candy-apple red Mercedes hardtop convertible. The excitement flowing through her veins on that hot July day had her needing to feel the wind in her hair. Pure adrenaline was pumping fresh energy to the core of her being as she pulled into the private parking space Thurgood reserved just for her. 

Harvey wasn't home yet, and they'd agreed to wait until after the wedding to have sex again, and she was certain they were doing the right thing. Working on making a baby had been automatically postponed until after they were married, and she was crediting going off the pill for a lot of how good she was feeling lately.

She was even feeling good about her relationship with Thurgood Williams. Since she and Harvey had been together, she'd wanted to have a good relationship with Thurgood since, no matter what, he was a close member of the Wilson family. So, she'd been listening to him and taking his advice for months, and so far she hadn't regretted it. He told her that allowing him to broadcast the Pennsylvania interviews with The Keepers would put Wilson Publishing and The Hits Network on the map in a big way, nationally and around the world, and that's exactly what happened. With his guidance, all the filming had gone as planned in Pennsylvania and in Jackson, and that meant she would finish everything on her "work plate" on time. 

In August, she and Harvey would be going to Silver Water to spend time with her mother, and after that, the Brion and Wilson families would head to Los Angeles. It was hard to believe, but in less than a month, she would be graduating with honors: Getting her PhD in business from UCLA. Once that was over, she would head back to Pennsylvania to finish her last interviews with The Keepers, and two months after that, she and Harvey would be getting married.

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Heading to Thurgood's office that day, she recalled how just a short while ago she couldn't stand being in the same room with the man, and now, she was eager to see him. They would be working on plans for the last set of interviews he'd be conducting with her. It was the other part of his idea; running a series of interviews with her, along with her interviews with The Keepers. His interviews with her were thirty-minute segments already airing on THN stations after or in between her hour-long interviews with The Keepers. Running his interviews near hers, which were the most highly watched special interview series in decades for any network, had already catapulted both of them into millions of households worldwide. With ratings soaring for THN, the half-hour interviews were attracting just as many viewers as the hour-long segments they'd named, "The Keepers' Gold." 

Thurgood's camera crew had followed her for weeks capturing footage of her interactions with people from all racial, ethnic, and age groups, and thousands of people from all walks of life had responded positively to the story. Most were eager to tell the federal government to let The Keepers keep the last gold brick, if it existed and if it was part of the lost Confederate gold.

For the first time in the four years she'd known Thurgood, she respected him. Not just for his talents and skills, but—as a person. Since they'd been working together, he had been a respectful gentleman toward her during every encounter. She was even starting to think Harvey might be right. Maybe his step first cousin had changed.

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From his offices on the top floor of his downtown tower, Thurgood's eyes were glued to his closed-circuit TV. He was watching Zarah as she parked, and as she made her way up to see him. She moved like a dancer with graceful, beautiful movements. She hadn't left anything behind on the football field from when she was lead dancer for the JCU marching band's "J-Girls" dance squad. Years ago, whenever he watched the band, he paid only scant attention to the other girls. He had eyes only for the gray-eyed beauty with the light brown hair. The lovely Zarah. He turned off his monitor. If things worked out the way he wanted them to, she'd soon be giving him a performance like the one she gave her old boyfriend on that mini-DV he found in her home.