Page 293 of Sins & Secrets

The rumor is confirmed within minutes. It’s easy to tell when each of them know.

Dale was correct that Adrian does the firing, and not me, but it’s me who my coworkers come to for answers when it’s done. All of them are upset, and nothing I can say offers them any comfort.

It’s as if my office becomes the place to vent. The place for them to safely unleash their anger. Unfortunately for me, it also appears to be the day the graphics department is getting culled.

So one after the other pass snide looks my way before heading to their office with empty boxes to clear out their things.

They just lost their jobs. I feel compassion for them, even the ones I didn’t get along with very well. Frustration mounts and I’m more upset than ever toward the end of the day.

A woman who’s just been let go comes into my office at three. “What the hell, Suzette?” Her face is almost white, and her voice shakes from how upset she is. “Half of the department was just let go.”

“He’s rearranging things,” I say helplessly. “I’m so sorry.”

“Let me guess, there’s nothing you can do.”

“I’m sorry,” is my only reply. I can’t give her anything else. I’m not the owner of the company; Adrian is, and I’m not even the second step down in the company. “I have no input or authority.”

“Wonderful,” she says sarcastically. “Goodbye, Suzette.”

A few minutes later, another person who has been fired storms across the hall. He turns his head and stares at me on his way past, but doesn’t say a word.

It’s not until Gail comes back, taking her seat and appearing on the verge of tears. “If you knew something, you would tell me, right?” We’ve worked together for years and I’ve never seen her like this. Her tan skin is flushed. “If I’m going to lose my job, I just need to know so—” her voice cracks and I can’t take it.

“The second I know anything?—”

“Could you ask him?” She stresses, “Please?” Her dark brown eyes are rimmed in red and I know she’s a mess witnessing so many layoffs so quickly and with whispers of a merger, where our jobs would no doubt overlap with others and thus, more layoffs.

“Please,” she begs me. With a nod, and a tight swallow, I agree.

“I can ask him,” I tell her and then I firm up my response. “I’ll ask him today.”

Sitting here and waiting for an answer isn’t enough, not for me and not for the team members I have left. I’ve worked far too hard for this company to let it all go to shit like this. If we lose Gail, the report we put together today is irrelevant. Clients stay with us because of the team. We can’t break down like this.

I won’t let it happen.

At five forty-five, I knock on the door to Adrian’s office. Shaking out my hands, I prepare myself. Not the version of me he sees after six. But the version who existed before that man dared to walk through the doors to this building. The badass businesswoman who doesn’t take any shit.

It’s a small blessing that his secretary is gone for the day and her desk is empty now. Most of the building is cleared out, but not everyone. And I have fifteen minutes. He can offer me fifteen minutes if it means saving the most profitable department in this company.

“Come in,” Adrian calls from inside the office.

Steeling myself, I open the door and go in, then close it behind me. The move is fast and I say a silentthank youthat his door was unlocked.

Before he can say a word, I approach his desk. It seems to take forever and the scent of people’s fear as they got fired today hangs in the air. His large, spacious office must have seemed like an awful joke to the people who lost their jobs. I could be one of them, and Adrian is the only one who can confirm my fear or dismiss it. That’s why I’m here. This conversation is needed, because I can’t sit at my desk for another day with nothing to say to the people I’ve worked with for years as they file out past me. I handpicked my department. They should be able to rely on me.

“My department is essential to what our company does,” I begin, without waiting for his permission. I don’t need it outside of the games we play. “If you want to keep the company going, you’ll need to keep the core team intact. Every single one of them is essential, and I can vouch for them and their work.”

Adrian shifts in his seat, his dark suit crisp, his expression inscrutable. As he leans back, his hands relaxed on the armrests, I wait for any reaction at all, but I’m given nothing.

“Almost everyone I could part with is already gone, and my team won’t be able to keep functioning if we lose any more people. We’ve brought in the most revenue of any other department over the last few years, and you can expect more of the same over the next five years. We’re projected to triple our profits by then.”

Adrenaline rages through me at the very fact that we will triple in only five years. There’s not a damn word I’ve said that’s exaggerated. My heart hammers in my chest as I stare back at Adrian’s cool gaze. Again, he doesn’t react other than to gesture to continue.

“I’m damn good at my job, and I have good people, and we’re going to keep striving for excellence.”

“Are you done?” he questions.

“There’s no one who can do what we do and keep those clients. No one has the relationships we do. No one has the word of mouth that we do. Replacing any of us would be a mistake.”

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