No one is touching her

The ceiling was unfamiliar.

That was the first thing.

I lay there for a full second just staring at it, waiting for my brain to catch up with the rest of me. White ceiling. Dark curtains. Sheets that were too soft to be mine.

Then everything came back at once.

I sat up so fast the room tilted.

The other side of the bed was empty. Cool to the touch when I pressed my hand against it, which meant he'd been gone for a while. His side barely looked slept in. The whole room barely looked like anyone lived in it, clean, sparse, the kind of space that didn't give anything away.

I pressed my fingers against my eyes and just breathed for a second.

Okay.

Okay.

I looked down. I was wrapped in a bedsheet, my dress from last night folded on the chair by the window. On top of it, a plain white shirt and a skirt.

I stared at them.

He'd left clothes out for me.

Something about that small thing made my throat tighten in a way I didn't have the time or the energy to deal with. I pushed it down, got up, pulled on the shirt and skirt and tied the waistband as tight as it would go. The skirt was a little short but I couldn't wear my old clothes.

I found my bag on the floor by the door. My shoes beside it, placed neatly, which I definitely had not done myself.

I didn't let myself think about last night.

Not now. I had bigger problems and if I started pulling at that thread I would unravel completely and I could not do that.

I had to get to the office.

I had to fix this.

---

The whole cab ride I kept telling myself the same thing.

You're innocent. You know you're innocent. Find someone who will listen. Get proof, evidence and you'll have your job back.

I was going to walk in and go straight to HR before Sienna could do anything else. I was going to ask them to pull the server logs, the actual raw logs, not whatever cleaned-up version she'd printed off. I was going to stand in that building and I was not going to move until someone heard me properly.

I had a plan.

I had a plan right up until I walked through the front doors and saw my things on the floor.

I stopped walking.

In the middle of the lobby. People moving around me. I just stopped.

My folders. My notebooks; the ones I kept on my desk, the ones I'd filled over nine months with notes and sketches and project timelines. My little succulent that I'd kept alive for fourteen months on that windowsill. All of it piled on the floor beside the front desk in a way that was designed to be seen. In a way that said this person is already done here.

Sienna was standing next to it.

She looked up when she saw me.

She smiled.

"You actually came back." She tilted her head, her face holding that same hideous smirk. "I wasn't sure you'd have the nerve."

"Where did you get my things?" My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Who went through my desk —"

"I cleared it out this morning. Seemed like the right time." She glanced down at the pile. "Some of it's a bit creased. Sorry about that."

"You went through my desk?"

"Nora —"

"Those are my personal things —"

"Nora." The manager's voice,.Mr. Shawn, coming from behind me with his jacket on and his face already set the way it got when he had already made a decision and was not entertaining a conversation about it. "I'm glad you came in. Saves us a step."

I turned around. "Mr. Shawn, I need to speak to HR. I've been asking since yesterday and nobody has —"

"That's going to have to wait."

"It can't wait. Someone used my login to —"

"The company's lawyers will be in touch with you by end of week." He cut through me like I hadn't spoken. Flat. Final. "The terms of your termination and the details of the suit will be outlined in —"

No, no, no…

"Lawsuit?" The word landed wrong in my mouth. "You're suing me. You're actually —" I turned around. Looked at the people in the lobby, the reception staff, two women from the third floor pretending to check their phones. "Is nobody going to say anything?” Tears welled up in my eyes. “All of you know me. All of you have worked with me —"

"Security is available if you need help with your things," Mr. Shawn said.

"I don't need help with my things. I need someone to actually listen to me." I was fighting to keep my voice from shaking and losing. "I didn't do this. Sienna set this up, she had access to the system, she could have —"

"That is a very serious accusation —"

"So is accusing me!" I stepped forward. "Give me one day. One day and access to the server logs and I will show you exactly —"

"You need to lower your voice."

"I will not lower my —"

The slap came out of nowhere.

My head snapped sideways. The sound of it cut through the lobby like something breaking.

Complete silence.

My hand came up to my cheek on its own. I turned slowly.

Sienna was standing right in front of me.

Up close her expression wasn't even angry. It was composed. Controlled. Like what she'd just done was perfectly reasonable.

She leaned in.

"Know your place," she said. Quiet. Just for me. "You are done here. Walk away while you still can."

Something lit up in my chest. Something past hurt, past shock. Something that had been quietly building since that meeting room yesterday and the bedroom last night and every single moment in between.

"You framed me!" My voice came out low. Shaking but not from fear. "You planned this. You and Daniel both sat there and you planned this and I am not walking out of here like I did something wrong —"

"Oh my God, she's still talking." Sienna turned to Mr. Shawn like I was a guest that had overstayed. "Can we just —"

"Nora." Mr. Shawn stepped forward with papers in his hand. Shoved them at my chest. "Take these. These are the findings. Read them. And when the lawyers contact you, respond through the appropriate channels." He turned toward the door. "Get security."

"This is her doing!" I pulled the papers away from my chest and held them up. "Every single thing in here, she put together. She went into the system —"

"Get her out."

Two security guards appeared from the side door.

I stepped back. "Don't touch me. I can walk, don't —"

"Then walk," Mr. Shawn said.

"You're making a mistake." My voice cracked on the last word. I hated it. I hated that it cracked. "When the real CEO gets here, when someone actually looks at this properly —"

"The CEO is here."

The voice came from behind me.

Not Shawn. Not security. Someone else entirely.

The whole lobby shifted. I felt it before I understood it — the way people straightened, the way Sienna's composure flickered for just a half second.

I turned around.

"Nobody is touching her."

The voice was low. Controlled. Familiar in a way that reached into my chest and pulled.

I knew that voice.

I didn't know how I knew it. I'd only heard it once, in a dark bar, saying barely anything at all.

But I knew it.