Nora’s POV “Close the door and lock it, Blake.”Marcus Hale’s voice cut through the quiet of the executive floor at 9:47 p.m. I stood just inside his office doorway, still in the navy blouse and pencil skirt I had worn since seven that morning. The glass walls of the high-rise never fully darkened. City lights glittered forty stories below, and anyone walking the corridor could see silhouettes if they looked hard enough. I was Nora Blake, twenty-seven, third-year associate who had survived two performance reviews by working later than everyone else. Marcus was thirty-nine, department head, the man who controlled my hours, my evaluations, and now, apparently, whatever else he decided to take.I locked the door. The soft click sounded louder than it should have.“Deadline is real,” he said, not looking up from the open laptop on his desk. “Client call in four minutes. You stay until the project is finished. Officially that means research support. Unofficially it means you service me wh
Last Updated : 2026-08-31 Read more