Off the record

Amelia Collins knows better than to get personally involved in her work. She simply chooses not to listen to herself. In her final year at Columbia University, Amelia is determined to graduate with more than strong grades and polite bylines. She wants stories that unsettle, stories that expose what people work hardest to conceal. She believes truth is not meant to be comfortable, and she is willing to make herself inconvenient to prove it. Nick Hale makes discomfort disappear for a living. A senior executive whose career depends on discretion and control, Nick does not deal in facts so much as outcomes. He manages reputations, redirects attention, and ensures that certain stories never quite make it to print. He is careful. He is composed. He does not make mistakes like getting involved with a journalism student who asks too many questions. Their relationship begins the way most bad ideas do. Casually. Quietly. With the unspoken agreement that it will end before it becomes complicated. It doesn’t. As Amelia follows a lead that could define her career, she realises the truth she is chasing sits dangerously close to Nick’s world, and possibly to Nick himself. What once felt like chemistry becomes a liability. What felt private becomes professionally unforgivable. Amelia must decide whether integrity is something you practise selectively. Nick must decide whether controlling the narrative is worth the cost of losing the one person who sees him clearly. Some stories ruin careers. Some ruin people. And some refuse to stay buried, no matter how determined everyone involved is to keep them there.