Page 147 of Trapped with the Billionaire

“I know.” I didn’t bother sitting. “What were you doing in Mr. B’s office?” I hit him right between the eyes with it. No sense beating around the bush.

The blood drained from his face, and he slumped in his chair. He would have melted into the carpet if he could have. “I might have been jumping the gun a little,” he squeaked out.

“On what?” I demanded.

“Well, Harold said he was going to recommend me for the job. Nothing personal against you, I just think he knows me better. He and I have worked together for a long time and all, you know.” He was jabbering out a lot of words, but no facts—nothing that made any sense.

“What job?”

“The corner office,” he said meekly.

I couldn’t put together what he was saying. If Josh had been planning office shuffling of some sort, he would have told me.

“Mr. B is going off to London in two weeks to run Benson Europe.”

My legs went weak, and I collapsed into the chair. This didn’t make any sense.

Wenzel waved a hand in the air. “Something about the succession plan and replacing a sick uncle who’s leaving. Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Mr. B has been a great boss, but when opportunity knocks, I’m putting my hat in the ring.”

Wenzel had gone from panicky at getting caught in Josh’s office, to giddy at the prospect of taking over, the weasel.

Succession plan… The words rattled around in my head for a moment.

The blue folder Josh had mentioned—his father’s plan for him.

I stood and left Wenzel’s office without another word.

“I think you do good work,” the brown-noser called after me.

From the first day I met him, I couldn’t have cared less what he thought, and that feeling had only gotten stronger with time.

Douche-nozzle.

I barged past Dee’s desk. “I need a minute.” I closed Josh’s office door behind me. I’d seen him put it away once, and tried to remember where.

Sitting in his chair, I found it in the first drawer I opened.

Josh Benson Advancement Plan, the folder was titled.

Steeling myself, I opened and began reading.

It got worse and worse the farther I went.

There were sections about getting experience in various departments, followed by acquisition rationalizations—now I understood where the word came from—and then the final two steps.

A transfer to run Benson Europe, followed five years later by ascension to the CEO position of Benson Corp.

This was a map of the yellow brick road Josh had been traveling toward his future, his duty—his unalterable destiny.

At the bottom, it was dated the day of Kelly’s engagement party, and signed by both Josh and his father.

Above the signatures it saidPromised this day by Josh Benson and Lloyd Benson.

With those words, it might as well have been signed in Josh’s blood.

My vision blurred as the room threatened to go dark. I set my head down against the desk.

I felt faint because my heart had been replaced by a black hole of nothingness incapable of pumping blood, incapable of anything except tears and self recrimination for having been so stupid as to repeat my past mistakes.

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