Her eyes darted to Nicholas again. She had his full attention. She had everyone’s attention but it was his that made her cheeks warm as she set her shoulders and kept going. “You already know my husband—” her voice cracked, and a few people looked away “—I’ve heard the rumors circulating and I’m willing to acknowledge that our relationship probably makes my presence here seem questionable to some of you, but I plan on working very hard to prove to everyone that I deserve to be here. I promise that I won’t let any of you down.”
A long, frozen silence followed her words. A bead of sweat rolled down her spine. Arthur saved it, by saying, “Well said, Jay,” and clapping, and slowly others joined him. It was the mosttepid accolade she had ever received but at least they weren’t booing or sewing a scarlet letter to her chest.
After her cringing introduction, the talk shifted to the promised department updates. Jay listened to the various executives give perfunctory reports of their metrics before launching into their lists of grievances with far more gusto. Jay struggled to look competent and interested, even as she wondered how many of these “operations” would actually fall into her court.
When she dared to look over again, Nicholas was on his phone.
She felt drained and useless dragging herself back to the desk that would only be hers for another week before she got an office of her own. Annica wasn’t at her seat and her desk appeared to have been cleaned—ruthlessly so. All of her various knickknacks and photos were gone.
Her eyes swung to Nicholas’s office. He wasn’t in there.
Back-to-back meeting?It wasn’t uncommon for his day to be stacked—she knew that from managing his schedule—but a bad feeling nipped at her like a biting fly. He’d seemed so distracted in that previous meeting. And what was that about with Security?
Is everything okay?she asked him.
Don’t worry about me. Tell me what you think of this. It’s a mock-up.
He sent her a picture of a silver chain necklace that had a bunch of little charms dangling from it: a big sphere of citrine surrounded by smaller spheres of onyx, heliotrope, kyanite, and what appeared to be pallasite, with small chunks of olivine crystal,
Is it space-themed?she asked, looking at the meteorite.
They’re the planets from your documentary.
Jay stared, her breath leaving her in a rush as she belatedly recognized them all: the irradiated desert planet; the one that was half-lava seas and frozen volcanic rock; the hurricane planet with diamond rain; and a real chunk of space, meant to sit frozen against her skin.
(Can I watch the world burn with you?).
???????
Nicholas sat with his laptop out in front of him, tucking his phone away. There was a document open on the screen but it was mostly there for reference: he had been preparing for this meeting for weeks now, with an attention to detail that would impress even Jay.
And he wassolooking forward to it.
James entered the room, standing against the far wall. One of his subordinates had already been to Annica’s desk, cleaning it out and revoking her credentials—after copying her hard drive. If she did somehow make it back to her desk before she was escorted out of the building, she wouldn’t be able to access her computer. It only took one spiteful employee with a magnet and a grudge to learn that lesson.
He watched her adjust her headphones, taking her time making sure everything was arranged just so before walking down the hall. A fastidious little control freak, he thought. There was a notepad under her arm and her face was expressionless as usual, although he didn’t think he was imagining the new undercurrent of distaste whenever she looked at him.
The feeling was mutual, though she’d be finding that out for herself soon enough. His smile hardened as she walked in. Hereyes flicked uncertainly to James as she sat down, opening her legal pad to a fresh page. When the seconds ticked by and he didn’t kick off the meeting or introduce his “guest,” she began to squirm, dog-earring the page and working it back and forth.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Nicholas asked, after several minutes had passed.
“No. You didn’t send me a calendar invite for this meeting. Was there supposed to be a brief attached to it?”
Nicholas leaned forward, pushing his laptop to the side so that there would be no obstructions between them. “This isn’t a meeting. Let me enlighten you on why you’re here today. We have security footage of you making unauthorized use of Arthur Hartwell’s computers after hours to access confidential documents.”
“What?” The shock in her eyes could have been convincing if not for the panic.
“We also have footage of you going to the photocopierbeforehours, using credentials that weren’t yours—seemingly to circulate copies ofThe Hollybrook Herald’sfront page amongst staff. I don’t think I really need to specify which issue.”
The color faded from her face. He relished it; he’d been planning his revenge since the day she’d demanded a promotion, figuring he could get her slapped with a performance improvement plan after catching her in enough mistakes. But corporate malfeasance?
That was so much better.
“Additionally,” he began, drumming his fingers on the table, “I’ve managed to obtain a transcript of a conversation you had with a reporter from said newspaper. Not only were you foolish enough to have that conversation during work hours, you fedhim information that violated your NDAandslandered me.” He raised an eyebrow. “That looks a lot like retaliation.”
“I get a lot of phone calls. Any one of them could have been a reporter.”
“Don’t give me that shit. I have proof. He was eager enough to sell you out after I called his boss and threatened to pull my funding if he wasn’t fired. Several of that paper’s biggest advertisers are clients of this firm. But I suppose you knew that already, being so good at your job.”
