She Stole My Job… And My Nightmare! novel · Chapter 16 of 24

Chapter 16: Her Own No

I opened the folder standing at his kitchen counter in his shirt.

Inside was a one-page offer on heavy paper.

Chief of Staff, Maddox Holdings. Salary: four hundred thousand dollars. Reports to the chief executive. Fixed hours.

Under the hours he had written, by hand: Home by seven. Phone off at ten. Hers to set.

I read it twice.

Elliot stood across from me with a coffee he hadn't touched.

"I thought you'd say no," he said.

"Then why write it?"

"Because you'd be good at it. Because the company is better with you in it." He looked at the cup. "And because if I don't ask, I'll want to."

I laid the page back in the folder and squared the edges.

"No," I said.

He didn't flinch.

"Thank you for asking me," I said. "I mean it. But I worked for you for four years, and I'd like to find out what I'm good at when you aren't the one who says so."

He was silent a moment.

"Understood," he said.

It was only one word, but his voice stayed even, and he picked up the folder and put it in the drawer.

I had expected him to argue.

I had expected the quiet voice and the three torn letters.

"You really are going to take it," I said.

"I'm going to try."

"That's the honest answer?"

"It's the only one I have."

I laughed, and he smiled, small and rueful, and then the buzzer sounded in the hall.

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