Wanted by My Three Bosses novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: What Meredith Said

Meredith's office was on the thirty-ninth floor, two flights below the partners, and it smelled of lavender.

She had made tea.

She poured me a cup and pushed it across her desk before I could say I did not want any.

"Sit, dear," she said. "I'm so glad you came."

I sat.

A framed photograph stood on her credenza, the three founders in front of a laundromat with a younger Meredith holding a clipboard beside them.

She saw me look at it, and her smile went soft.

"Eleven years," she said. "I've watched them build every floor of this building."

"You said you'd tell me about the last assistant."

"Yes."

She folded her hands.

"Her name doesn't matter. She was twenty-five, bright, a little like you. She worked for them for five weeks."

"What happened?"

"What happens, Daphne." Meredith's voice was gentle. "All three of them wanted her, and she wanted to be wanted. She went along with it for a month."

My stomach went tight.

"And then?"

"And then they lost interest." She sighed. "It isn't cruelty. It's how they are. Three men who have never been refused anything get bored very quickly. One morning she came in and her badge no longer worked. Nobody said a word to her."

"They fired her?"

"They didn't have to. She found her own way out." Meredith looked at her tea. "I sat with her in the stairwell for two hours that day. She could not stop crying."

I said nothing.

I looked at the credenza, and at the photograph, and at the line of her mouth.

She seemed so sorry.

"I'm telling you because I like you," she said. "I'd hate to see it happen again. You've been so brave. I've watched you all week."

"Gray said it happened twice before. Both women knew from the start."

Meredith's eyes lifted, quick and bright, then lowered again.

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