He Hid Me Twelve Years and Paraded Her, So I Quit Both novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Keep Her Hungry

Lacey put the banker's box on Bea's kitchen table and took her hands off it.

Bea set a mug of tea in front of her without asking and went to stand by the stove.

"Print-outs," Lacey said. "He deletes his texts every Friday, but his emails to me all copy the old shared inbox. I have the password."

"When did you read them?" I asked.

"The night you walked out." Her voice cracked. "Each one sounded like normal management advice when I got it. Then I put them in order, and I understood what I was for."

I lifted the lid.

The top sheet was an email from Everett to Lacey, dated two years ago.

Make sure she sees you getting credit in front of the team. Be warm about it. Never apologize.

Under it was another.

Don't mention promotions around her. She works harder when she's behind.

Another.

Keep her hungry. If she gets comfortable she'll start looking around. Give her one reason a quarter to think it's next.

I read every page standing up.

Bea read over my shoulder and said a word I had never heard her say.

"Did you ever sleep with him?" I asked Lacey.

"No." She looked at me directly, which cost her something. "Never. He never touched me. He said it was a favor to the company. He said you'd laugh about it someday."

"And you believed that."

"I believed it for two years. I'm not proud of it."

"You could have asked me why he wanted that."

"I know." She wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "I was scared you'd go straight to him, and he'd say I was lying, and I'd lose my job. I took the title because I'm twenty-seven and I have a student loan and nobody has ever handed me anything."

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