After a Year of Silence novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: Ask Anyone on Thirty-Four

The reporter was waiting in our lobby at eight forty the next morning, with a recorder in her hand.

She was a small woman in a rain jacket, and she stood between the security desk and the elevators where nobody could miss her.

"Ms. Linwood," she said. "I'm from Freight Weekly. I have a statement from a former Brightwell executive, and I'd like your response."

"I have nothing to say to you," I said.

"She says you were promoted because you were the CEO's secret wife."

The lobby was full of people with coffee.

Every one of them slowed down.

"She also says the company has paid you for three years to keep quiet," the reporter said. "I'd like to hear your side before nine tonight."

I felt my face go hot.

I did not say anything, because the board chair had told me that morning not to say anything unless I meant to say all of it.

Then a voice spoke behind me.

"Can I say something?"

It was one of the dispatchers from the third floor.

He was twenty-six, with a lanyard full of pins, and I had spoken to him maybe four times.

"Sure," the reporter said, and turned the recorder toward him.

"Last winter my mother was in the hospital out of state," he said. "I had no leave left. Harper moved my shifts without telling HR and covered the gap herself, and she told me not to thank her. I only found out because a coworker saw her log in at two a.m."

"That's an anecdote," the reporter said.

"It's a promotion," he said. "That's what the person who gets promoted does."

A woman from accounts payable stepped up beside him.

"She sent back my budget in a week," she said. "Marked up in red, every line. It was the first time anyone in this building read what I wrote."

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