Chapter: Chapter 7: A Careful Answer"I'm exactly who my résumé says I am," I said, picking my words like I was trying not to set something off. "A woman who needed a job and happened to be decent at this one. I don't know what else you want me to say."It wasn't the full truth. Not even close. But I told myself it was technically defensible, every word true on its own, lined up carefully enough to keep the bigger truth underneath out of sight. I'd learned this trick when I was young, I realized, sitting there under his scrutiny, from years of telling worried customers the bakery was fine, and from reassuring my mother after my father's diagnosis that things would work out. I was good at saying true things in a way that hid the bigger ones. I just hadn't expected to need the skill this badly, this soon, against someone this observant.Damian watched me for a long moment, and I made myself keep his gaze, made myself breathe normally, made myself be, for the length of that silence, someone with nothing to hide. I've gotten
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-27
Chapter: Chapter 6: After HoursThe email hit my inbox at 9:52 p.m. on a Thursday, and I almost didn't see it at all.I'd already changed into pajamas and curled up on the couch with Sofia, half watching a rerun neither of us was really paying attention to, when my phone buzzed against the coffee table with that annoying work-notification sound that gets past Do Not Disturb. I'd set it up in my first week, mostly because I was nervous, and partly because something in me said that when Damian Cole wanted something at night, he wanted it dealt with right away, not the next morning.The server migration for the Q3 investor deck had blown up. I need the backup files pulled and formatted before the 7 a.m. board call. Can you come in tonight?I sat there for ten full seconds before I even got what he meant. Not asking if someone else could take care of it. Not even to the whole team. He sent it straight to me, at ten at night, and from what I'd seen over the past month, he almost never asked for anything he thought he cou
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-27
Chapter: Chapter 5: The RhythmBy my second week, I'd picked up Damian Cole's rhythm the same way I'd once learned the pace of a rush hour bakery line, not from anyone teaching me, but from repetition and from paying close enough attention that the pattern just started showing itself.He showed up at 7:15 every morning, always with the same black coffee from the corner shop, never the one in the building lobby, and he never said why. I never asked. He read every email himself before handing off even one, no matter how full the inbox got. He hated being interrupted mid-thought, but he never once raised his voice. What gave him away was the way he'd go completely still, which felt worse than shouting. And he was always testing people in these tiny ways most of them never even noticed, like slipping in a wrong number on a report and waiting to see who caught it, or planting a scheduling conflict just to see who flagged it before it turned into a mess.I caught them all. I'd decided, somewhere around day three, that bei
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-27
Chapter: chapter 4: What I Didn't SayThe silence stretched long enough that I could hear the building's climate system humming faintly through the vents, could hear my own heartbeat in my ears, could hear the distant ding of an elevator arriving somewhere down the hall, and it felt weirdly normal for a second, like the world had no clue my whole future might be riding on the next ten seconds."I don't know what you mean," I said.It sounded steadier than I'd expected. I'd spent the whole weekend trying to brace for this moment, even though I never really let myself believe it'd happen. And I couldn't get past this vague little loop in my head: deny, deflect, survive. Once the moment hit, this cold, practical part of me took over, the same part that used to talk furious customers down after they'd called to complain about the wrong order.Damian watched me without blinking. "Reyes," he said. "That's your last name, then."That's a pretty common name," I said,trying to keep my voice steady."It's not all that common." He
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-24
Chapter: chapter 3: The First Lie"Something up, Ms. Reyes?"Damian's voice stayed calm and even, but his eyes hadn't left my face. The seconds dragged on. I could feel my pulse in my throat, and I knew whatever I did in the next three seconds would pretty much decide how the rest of this went.I forced myself to look away from the folder, slowly, like it didn't mean anything, like my eyes had just wandered there on their own. "No," I said. "Sorry. It's been a long morning. I think the elevator ride finally got to me."It wasn't a great lie. It wasn't even close. But his face didn't change, not really, and after a second he went back to whatever he'd been reading, like the whole thing had already lost its place in his day."Renee's office is just down the hall. She'll help you get settled." A pause. "Monday at eight. And don't be late.""I won't." My voice sounded steadier than I felt. I headed for the door before he could look up again, before he could catch whatever was still on my face, and I didn't let out the br
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-10
Chapter: chapter 2: Forty Floors HigherThe Cole Industries building didn't look real from the sidewalk. It looked like something rendered in an architect's pitch deck — all glass and steel and clean vertical lines, catching the morning light and throwing it back twice as sharp. I stood across the street for a full minute before I made myself cross, smoothing the front of my blazer, running through my résumé details in my head one more time even though I'd had them memorized for days.Executive Assistant to the CEO's office. Screening interview, ninth floor.I hadn't expected the callback so fast. Two days after I'd hit submit half-convinced the application would vanish into some algorithmic void, an email had landed in my inbox with a time, a floor number, and a name — Renee Wu, Director of Operations — and I'd read it four times before I believed it was real.The lobby alone was bigger than the entire footprint of the bakery. Marble floors, a security desk staffed by two people who looked like they moonlighted as bouncer
Huling Na-update: 2026-10-10
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