The Scoop

Truth

"What does this have to do with me?" Jenna protested the overly long story. "More importantly, what does this have to do with you?!" An inhumane rage boiled inside of her, more than the time her cab driver tried to overcharge her.

"Have you ever searched your whole life to find who you are?" The lady tipped her sunhat over her eyes, gripping the metallic weapon tighter in her hand. "I thought I was the daughter of a widowed mother... Imagine my surprise when my mother, on her deathbed, told me my father was alive."

Jenna, quick to make connections, soon began to realize the connection between the story, the lady in front of her, and herself.

"I'm not like other children." The lady snapped, "I tracked down my father to this city right here... I wanted to tell him he had a daughter, that his wife forgave him..." Her expression grew grim. "That he didn't have to die with so much guilt on his hands."

"That- that doesn't make sense!" Jenna interjected, confused. "I thought- In the story, the man killed his wife, didn't he?"

"She didn't die... he was too drunk to realize she was breathing... The night he came home, she wanted to get him sober to tell him she was pregnant." Pointing the gun up again, she said, "Pregnant with me."

Jenna knew she wasn't mistaken.

The same man she owed her career to was the father of the woman in front of her.

"W-Why?" Jenna stuttered, beginning to lose her composure. "Why me? There were at least ten other news stations on that bridge. I was just one of them! Why are you taking this out on me? Your father was depressed! I couldn't control what he did- I-"

"That's where you are wrong!" Her voice shook with nervous tremors. "Out of all those papers- only one had his last words."

Jenna shook her head, trying to reject the memory.

"All the other stations weren't close enough to hear it. . . Everyone except the witness who just so happened to be there when it happened."

She was right.

Jenna was there the day they died.

She was down on her luck, regretting ever moving to such a terrible city. She got a job, sure, as a mere paper jockey. All she did in the company of her dreams was get people coffee and ask when she would be able to write.

She needed a scoop. Something that only she could write that was interesting enough to make the front cover of the newspaper.

And then she saw the two men making their way to the George Washington bridge.

Call it her reporter instincts.

When she saw the two climbing, ready to jump, she took out her own camera (which she always kept on her person in case of a story) and began filming.

Every reporter who accosted her, tempting her to say the man's last words, failed.

She was saving the best details for herself.

The next day, the paper had her name written across the bottom.

"S-So what?" Jenna shook. "I'm a reporter. You can't blame me for doing my job?"

"You are right, my dear." The woman took off her sunhat. "But I can, in fact, blame you for not even trying to stop them... My father..." She sobbed, "My last family member is dead... and you didn't even try and stop him. Instead, you took his last words and made it some drama for the people to eat up like hungry dogs!"

The lady shook her head, letting her hair fall.

"My name, if you did your research, is Jane Hemming," she said. "And you skewed my father's words to make him look like another bum."

Jenna paled.

"Allow me to reiterate your writing, to jog your memory..." She cleared her throat, taking out a small wrinkled piece of paper out of her sunhat. "Two men jumped this afternoon from the George Washington Bridge."

Jenna started to cry.

"The first man, blonde with a bright future ahead of him, was coerced by the second man, a known alcoholic, to end their lives together."

Jenna stood up, knocking her chair over.

"Those who knew them said Jack, the deceased, was a doctor who helped everyone who knew him. 'He was a ray of sunshine in desperate times,' said his former neighbor, who resides in their little hometown in the country. But, as Clark, Jack's former best friend, said as he fell-"

Jenna lunged to grab the gun in a last-ditch attempt at life.

Lady Hemming pulled the trigger, her resolve stronger than steel,

"I'm sorry I didn't do anything to prevent this. But I didn't want to die alone, either."

With Clark's final words finally out in the open, Jenna fell to the floor.

Her paper, her precious article which he owed her career to, was also the end of her career.

Looking down on Jenna's bleeding body, she muttered, "The truth isn't that dramatic, now was it?"

Cleaning the gun of any wounds, Jane prepared to leave the scene. Although she used a silencer, she was sure someone would hear all the commotion and would come running in to save the rising star of the newspaper company.

As she turned to leave, she shook her head with the temperament of a disappointed mother. She carefully placed her sunhat onto her head, careful to cover her eyes. Just as she was about to turn the door handle, she quickly turned back around, remembering something important.

She tossed a shiny ring onto the floor along with a lovely letter stamped with a kiss.

Exiting the room, she was met with curious eyes on her.

Putting on her best-concerned face, she exclaimed, "Miss Jenna collapsed in her office! Someone should call an ambulance!"

The closest coworker to the door rushed inside, finding Jenna's shot body. Knowing this wasn't right, he rushed to catch the perpetrator.

But she was already gone.

The front page paper the next day was over the mystery woman who killed their lead writer.

"Jenna Kipling was found in her office at 10 this morning with a bullet through her heart. But who could the one to blame be? Police have been furiously looking for leads, however, witnesses say the last one to see her was wearing a sunhat and a long, flowery dress. Left at the scene was an engagement ring and a letter, presumably written by Jenna, confessing that she no longer wanted to elope.

The Police have claimed Jenna, the loved victim, wanted to elope with the suspected woman at the scene. Once she gained her wanted position in the company, she wanted to cancel any trace of romance. However, this backfired. Her former beloved chased her into the building, ultimately ending the engagement with a bang.

And that's the truth."

... the truth we were told.