Nights with My CEO novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Locked Door

On Sunday morning I told Reed I was going for a run, and I took the subway downtown instead.

He was still asleep, one arm flung across my side of the bed.

I stood there a full minute and watched him breathe.

Then I put on my sneakers and left a note that said, Back by dinner, in my own handwriting.

Water Street was empty on a Sunday.

The doorman nodded at me from behind the lobby desk, and I swiped my badge at the turnstile.

The light stayed red.

I swiped again.

Red.

"Ms. Brandvold," the doorman said, looking at his screen. "It says your access ended Friday at nine p.m."

"That's not possible."

"I'm sorry. I can call someone."

"Don't," I said. "I'll call someone."

I stepped outside and called Gwen.

She picked up on the first ring and whispered, "Where are you? Colby told everyone you had a breakdown at the party."

"I'm outside the building. I need my files, Gwen. My original Calder folder, the dated one on my desk machine."

"I'll let you in the side. Hold on."

Ten minutes later she opened the fire door on the loading dock in sweatpants and a Mets cap, looking over her shoulder.

"I'm going to get fired for this," she said.

"You're not."

"I'm going to get fired for this and then I'm going to tell everyone I did it for you."

We took the freight elevator.

My desk on thirty-three looked exactly like I left it, with a mug, a plant, and a stack of printed charts.

My computer was off.

When I turned it on, the screen said, This account has been disabled by an administrator.

I opened the shared drive from Gwen's laptop.

The Calder folder was there, all forty-one pages, and the author field read Colby Sargent.

The creation date was eight weeks ago.

I had started it in February.

"He changed the metadata," Gwen said.

"And moved my earlier versions," I said. "Look. The folder named Jacqueline Archive is empty."

Gwen sat on the edge of my desk.

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