Page 60 of The Secretary Volume II

Inside, it’s all matte surfaces and silent air.I don’t see Ellis.I see Andra.Which is worse.

She doesn’t smile.Doesn’t offer to show me around.She just hands me a folder like it’s a biohazard and says, “I told them you weren’t ready.”

My brow raises.“Sorry?”

“But they overrode my assessment,” she adds, with the strained civility of someone who’s already researched how to poison a coworker with office supplies.“So here you are.”

I’m still holding the folder.It’s very thin.Possibly empty.“I didn’t know I was under consideration for a promotion,” I say.

“You weren’t,” Andra replies.“But some decisions get made above my pay grade.”

She turns and gestures toward a desk tucked into a corner of the open floor plan.Bare walls, clean lines, not a single piece of paper in sight.It looks like a showroom mock-up of what someone thinks work looks like.I half-expect the whole thing to fold down into a Murphy bed.

“You’ll be working here,” she says.“Orientation materials are preloaded.You’ll report to Mr.Harrison when necessary.”

There’s a tone shift in that last part.Notifnecessary.When.She says it like an aftershock.

I nod.Not because I understand, but because I don’t feel like asking the questions she clearly doesn’t want to answer.Andra is not a “let’s unpack this” kind of woman.She’s more of a “put the body where I said to” kind of woman.

I shift on my feet.“I assume everything’s set up?”

She doesn’t answer.Just turns and leaves.Her heels make no sound.Which is deeply unsettling.

I lower myself into the chair.The leather is cold, the keyboard untouched.The monitor flickers on before I even reach for it.New login.New channels.New hierarchy.

I didn’t ask for this.I didn’t campaign.I didn’t send any “circling back” emails.All I did was decline an invitation.Politely.Firmly.And now I’m in the inner sanctum.At his house.With a new title and an office that smells like money and surveillance.

Still, I feel good.Not safe, exactly.But seen.Because Andra tried to block this.Tried to keep me out.And someone—Ellis, obviously—said no.Promote her.That’s not just access.That’s endorsement.

I guess this is how power moves look.Quiet.Clean.Easy.

Maybe I was wrong about the dinner.Maybe I was wrong about him.Maybe all of this is just faster than I expected, but not worse.

I adjust the monitor.Cross my legs.Set my fingertips on the keyboard like I know what I’m doing.

But I see clearly now.All that worrying—it was for nothing.My boss isn’t trying to blur boundaries, he’s making sure I’m not the type who’d let him.With the way he looks?That effortless charm?Who wouldn’t.Still, I played my cards right.I suppose the only thing left to do is to keep saying no.

I sit there taking it all in.Thinking about how easy this is, when I think about it.

And then, behind me, I hear it—a soft mechanical click.

The door I came through slides shut.

I glance over my shoulder, but no one’s there.

34

Lena

After the strange events of yesterday, I make sure to arrive ten minutes early.Not to impress anyone—just to avoid the kind of mistake that gets you escorted back out the front gate.

It’s my first full day working here.If “here” even qualifies as a workplace.Yes, there’s a desk.A login.A system of access points so restricted it feels more like parole than employment.

But the truth is—I don’t know what this is.

I haven’t seen Ellis since the dinner.

Technically, I was promoted.That’s what the email said.A new title, a new assignment, and an address dropped into my inbox like a trapdoor.

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