Page 277 of Sexting His Assistant

Oleg’s voice is calmer. “Luka rewards loyalty only when it keeps him comfortable.”

“That is not true,” I say.

Kirill sneers. “You say that because he chose you.”

My mouth goes dry.

Meredith’s eyes move to me.

I turn to Meredith. “And you?”

She does not answer at first. Then she steps closer. Her voice is controlled, but her eyes are not. “I managed things you never saw. I kept his schedule clean. I filtered calls. I warned him when people were becoming problems. I smoothed over mistakes he never even knew happened.”

I stare at her.

She continues, “And yes, I passed information.”

“To Oleg.”

“At first, it was small,” Meredith says. “Nothing that put him in danger.”

I laugh in disbelief. “You actually believe that?”

“It was business information,” she says simply.

“You were spying.”

“I was surviving.”

“You were trusted.”

Her face changes. “Trusted?” she repeats. The word comes out almost ugly.

Then she steps closer until she is only a few feet from me.

“Luka never trusted anyone fully,” Meredith says. “But he trusted usefulness. And I was useful for years.” Her eyes flash. “Then you came in.”

I stop breathing.

Meredith looks at me like she has been waiting to say this for a long time. “You were supposed to be another assistant,” she says. “Pretty, efficient enough, replaceable. But then he started giving you things.”

“That is not my fault,” I say.

“No,” Meredith says. “Of course not. You just stood there with your big eyes and your perfect memory and your little moral opinions, and suddenly he was listening.”

I flinch despite myself.

“He gave you all the important tasks,” she says. “I started losing out on information. He would never give me anything useful anymore, nothing that could help me take him down later.”

I think of my desk. The endless work.

The files I thought meant Luka did not trust me enough to tell me the truth, only trusted me enough to bury me in tasks.

I think of every fight we had.

Every time I thought he was keeping me at the edge of his life.

Every time I felt like I was useful but not truly trusted.