“Of course not. We need a performance from you,” I said. “The broken widow who can’t live without her husband. Who loved him so much that she couldn’t breathe without him. The innocent crying window. Can I rely on you?”
The woman smirked at me, and then her expression changed to one of great sadness. Her eyes welled up, and her lips trembled, and she clutched her chest. It was an excellent performance, and it scared me what this woman could do.
“Alright,” I said softly. “I got it.”
I also had a plan to pay off the witness as a backup, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.
The woman badgered me with a few more questions and then finally said goodbye. I breathed a sigh of relief. Never again was I going to take on a case like this.
The woman was toxic.
“Have Paul come into the conference room,” I said to one of the interns.
“And you,” I snapped at the new secretary. “Draw up all the details of the case. I want to look at it before I talk to him.”
She looked at me, surprised, and I raised an eyebrow.
“Are you deaf?” I snapped at her.
“No,” she stammered. “No, Mr. Fears.”
She opened her laptop and started to type, probably accessing the company records. I had spent the past year digitizing everything. Now all the cases were on a very secure system, only accessible by someone who had the authority. Her fingers stumbled as she typed, and I rolled my eyes.
“Umm…” she said. “I can’t get into the system.”
“Excuse me?” I asked.
“Payne gave me the ID and password, but it’s not working,” she murmured.
“Let me see!” I said, snatching the laptop from her.
A quick look showed me that the girl had Caps Lock turned on. No wonder the password wasn’t working. I glared at her as I turned it off and entered the password. The system entered her without a hitch. She blushed and looked away, and I shook my head.
Why did I have to deal with this shit?
Chapter 2
A Douchebag Boss
Hillary Beck
Iclenched my teeth and tried to breathe through the anger that flowed through my veins.I hated him.I hated this man with every inch of my being. I had hated him since he called me awkward and then had me running around like a headless chicken trying to find a shirt for him. He didn’t even have the decency to tell me that he had a personal dressing space with all his clothes nearby. Fortunately, one of the paralegals was kind enough to help me.
I detested working for him almost instantly. He barked orders and expected them to be done immediately. I had been looking forward to this job for so long. It had been exactly the kind of work I was always interested in. After my training in law, I had always envisaged working as the secretary to a lawyer. And when I had finally gotten the job, I had been ecstatic. Now, I just felt like a fool. How could I have imagined – with my luck – that things were going to work out in my favor? It made perfect sense. I got my dream job, but I ended up with a shitty, asshole boss.And a boss I’d had sex with!Ewww!I was almost tempted to quit, and yet I was desperate for the money. Mom and Dad barely had enough to support themselves. I didn’t want to burden them and have them bear my expenses too.
“Are you even listening?” he snapped.
I looked up at him blankly. I was standing in front of his desk, and he had been rattling off instructions that I hadn’t bothered listening to.
“No, Mr. Fears,” I said bluntly. I was too angry at him to care about my job at the moment.
“Why are you here… Hayley?” he asked.
“Hillary,” I snapped. “My name is Hillary Beck.”
He just looked at me as if waiting for an answer.
“I am here because I need the money,” I said.
