Chapter 2

I didn't sleep a wink that night.

When I arrived at the office the next morning, everyone looked at me differently.

Someone tagged me directly in the company group chat.

[@Natasha You used him for a whole month, even made him bring you coffee, and now you're claiming you didn't recognize him? Face blindness sure is convenient.]

Tina immediately chimed in.

Tina: [If your face blindness is that bad, why was the CEO the only person you mistook for someone else? How come you've never mistaken me for the cleaning lady?]

I explained that Benedict had been wearing a temporary badge without a job title, which was why I'd assumed he was an intern.

…

At 9:30 a.m., Madison summoned me to her office.

She shut the door without offering me a seat, then slid a statement across the desk and pressed a pen firmly against the signature line. "Sign it, and the project will proceed as planned."

I glanced at the document. Its title read: [Statement of Improper Conduct During Employment]

"Just because I didn't know who he was doesn't mean I had ulterior motives for getting close to him. I'm not signing this," I said.

Madison's expression darkened. She picked up the phone and issued an order right in front of me. "Suspend Natasha's current project and freeze her system access."

She hung up and pushed the pen toward me again.

I pushed it straight back across the desk.

Madison snatched the statement away, and the corner of a quotation sheet slipped out from beneath the file.

The name Hectare Materials was printed clearly across it.

She immediately snapped the folder shut. "Administrative staff have no business prying into supply chain matters."

No sooner had she finished speaking than my phone buzzed.

A notification flashed across the screen.

[Your access has been frozen.]

The more desperately she tried to conceal it, the more firmly the name stuck in my mind.

…

That afternoon, someone posted photos on the company intranet that showed me having Benedict carry supplies, fetch my coffee, and ride the elevator with me.

I dug up the chat history from the day I'd first mistaken the department head for a courier.

I was about to forward it to the group chat when the coworker who had warned me that day sent me a message.

[Don't drag me into this.]

A second later, she deleted it.

I stopped what I was doing and immediately took screenshots of everything before she could delete anything else.

I captured her message before it disappeared from the chat history, along with the photos and accompanying insults in the group chat, then saved all the evidence to my phone.

Before I could head to HR, I stopped by the break room.

"Will you still call me Benny?" The familiar voice came from behind me.

I turned to find Benedict in the doorway, still wearing the same suit he'd worn to the gala.

"Ben—" The name slipped out instinctively, but I caught myself before I could finish.

He stepped inside and closed the door. "Why didn't you explain your face blindness properly?"

"Because no one would've believed me anyway. They'd just have another accusation to throw at me. First, I played dumb. Now, I'm faking an illness, too," I replied.

"I can explain it to them," he offered. "I was conducting a departmental assessment at the time."

"You've only just taken office. If you defend me now, everyone will assume you're covering for me."

He fell silent for a moment before asking, "I heard you wanted to help me become an official employee. Well, what if I made things official as your boyfriend instead? How does that sound?"

I froze. The cup in my hand knocked against the sink with a soft clatter.

Suddenly, the break room door swung open.

Madison stood in the doorway, her gaze shifting between Benedict and me.

Without a word, she turned and walked away.

I hurried after her but stopped when I heard her speaking on the phone around the corner.

"Send me that photo of Natasha riding in Mr. Carrington's car," she said in a low voice. "I'll hand it over to HR tomorrow."

I tightened my grip on my phone and waited until she'd hung up and left before stepping out from behind the corner.

Tina approached me and lowered her voice. "Ms. Lynch spent nearly a month preparing for that gala, just waiting for a chance to get close to Mr. Carrington. Meanwhile, you had him running errands for you for an entire month before she even got her chance. She's not going to let this go."

I stared in the direction Madison had disappeared, my fingers tightening around my phone.

She even knew I had ridden in Benedict's car, yet she had never once bothered to ask where I had actually gone that day.

…

The following day, Madison used "enforcing discipline" as a pretext to accuse me of exploiting my position to get close to upper management.

HR summoned me directly. Not only had they frozen all my system access, but they also had a photograph ready to use against me.