Page 1 of Salvation

Chapter 1

Blake

Click-clack. Click-clack. Click-clack.

I attempt to focus on the sound of my rose-colored heels clacking against the marble flooring instead of the roaring panic bubbling in my chest, which accelerates with each step toward the ornate elevator doors. Today is the day. Today is the day Ifinallycrawl my way out of Managing Editor and into the position of Chief Editor.

Chief Editor has been a dream since I set foot in New York City, and the dream became all too real just last week when Sarah Abrams left Ingrid’s office with a ginormous box of tissues and red-rimmed eyes. I should feel remorse for Sarah. I should even feel a little terrified about her sudden departure, but all I can focus on is the sheer excitement coursing through my veins, knowing that all the endless coffee runs, the late nights, the boring as-shit meetings, and the back-bending hard work was finally paying off.

Ineedit to pay off. Otherwise, it will all have been for nothing.

Entering the elevator, I turn to the floor-to-ceiling mirrors and make quick work of checking my teeth, reapplying some gloss, and straightening my blazer that perfectly matches the new pumps Marshall gifted to me. I check my phone once more, hoping to have finally heard back from him since I let him know about the potentially life-changing news, but still no answer. He’s probably just sleeping in, he warned me he had a late night in the office tonight. The doors chime, signaling my arrival to the top floor, and I tuck my phone back into my mini purse. Plastering on my most charming smile, I exit the doors and immediately spot Ingrid’s glossy black hair draped over the back of her white office chair. I chirp a “Good Morning!” as I cross the room to place her iced coffee on the desk, only for a startled gasp to escape my lips.

Allthreeof our lips.

I watch in horror as the coffee cup slips from my fingers and crashes to the floor, staining my heels with thick droplets of dark brown liquid. “Oh my god!” A hand flies up to cover my mouth as my brain works to catch up to what I’m seeing. A man is between Ingrid’s legs.

Not just any man…Marshall.MyMarshall.

Between…her legs. Ingrid’s legs. Betweenmyboss’s legs.

Oh. My. God.

The glee I had at the possibilities of where this morning would take me was immediately replaced with nausea. I’m frozen to the spot, my feet like cement blocks as I watch the two before me scramble to get dressed.

“Blake?” They both ask, their voices laced with disbelief.

“This isn’t what it looks like!” Marshall quickly adds, his words rushing out.

Ingrid ducks under her desk in an attempt to cover her naked form, but the image of her flushed cheeks and bare skin isforever engraved in my mind. Her manicured hand shoots out to steal one of their shirts, and I take that moment to close my eyes. The noise in my head rises to a crescendo as my brain finally catches up, and the utter horror that I just felt is gone in an instant, replaced by icy, cold anger that I so rarely let make an appearance. I abruptly jerk away from the desk, knocking over the hideous spider plantshemade me buy last month to ‘freshen up’ her workspace.

“How long?” I grit out between my clenched teeth, forcing myself to look Marshall in the eyes.

I’d be damned if this man made me look like an even bigger fool than I already do.

“S-since you introduced us.” He stutters, wincing when Ingrid shoots him an angry look of disbelief.

I suck in a breath as Ingrid hops up from where she was hiding beneath her overly large desk, talking as she hurriedly buttons her shirt. I see and register her mouth moving but can’t seem to hear a single word that leaves her lips.

Over ayear.Over ayearof sharing the same bed with this man only for him to be fucking my boss. 4 years. 4yearsof hard work and dedication went down the drain in less than a minute. I blink, and without thinking, I blurt out, “I quit.”

I don’t acknowledge Marshall, who’s currently hopping after me with one shoe off. No, I’m already spinning on my heels and racing for the same doors I was so excited to enter just mere seconds ago. “You – you can’t quit!” Ingrid’s nasally, high-pitched voice echoes after me. I ignore her continued spiel, ignore Marshall’s pleading, ignore that discarded plant now littering the perfectly polished floor, and ignore that familiar burn creeping up my nose, begging to be cut loose.

“Should have thought about that before choosing to whore yourself out to the first man to pay you any attention.” I spit the venomous words from my mouth but feel little to no shame asthey hit their mark. They both flinch and just to be petty in the only way I know how I whip back around and bend down to pick up the half-emptied coffee cup.

“And pick up your own damn coffee!" I yell, launching the cup at the two of them, savoring the shock rippling their features.

***

Unknown:

Baby, please pick up

I’m sorry

I don’t understand why you’re so upset

It meant nothing

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