“Are you free?” she asks, twitching on her feet like she’d rather be doing anything else but this.
“Sure.” I stand slowly, aware of how her eyes drop to my bump for just a second before she walks away.
I catch Tasha’s gaze, unsettled by the worry in her eyes before I follow after Janice.
She leads me across the main floor, past desks and nosy colleagues to her office at the end of the room.
James watches from his desk, his expression completely unreadable and that sets all my internal alarms blaring.
Unease prickles along my spine as I step into the room, gently closing the door behind me. This feels like a trap. Like I’m about to be devoured by the corporate beast.
But I take the seat in front of the desk, my expression neutral even as my mind is screaming.
Janice steeples her fingers together on the top of her desk, her brows tight. “You’ve been with the company for three years.”
It’s not a question. She knows the answer. There’s a file in front of her, my name on the label.
What in the fuck is going on?
“Yeah, that sounds about right.”
“And you’ve always done exemplary work in your time with us, Lexi, but I have to address something that’s been brought to my attention.” That cold feeling becomes glacial. I shift in my seat, and the baby moves inside me, like even they know something bad is about to come. “I’ve received several troublesome reports from James about the standards you’ve been putting out recently.”
I freeze.
What the actual fuck?
About me?
About my fucking work?
My spine locks into place, my temper flaring.
That motherfucking asshole. “Right.” It comes out flat. Volatile.
“He’s concerned about some serious errors that have been in your documents lately and has flagged some of your behavior as… well, inappropriate.”
I dig my fingers into the arms of the chair, stunned. I barely hear a word of what she says over the next five minutes as my brain short circuits. This entire time he’s been touching me, making me uncomfortable, he’s been building this case against me with HR. The complaints go back before that first interaction, as if he was already laying the groundwork in case I reported him.
There’s not much that can silence me, but the words stick in my throat like razors.
By the time I leave her office, there’s a write up in my employee file and my brain is numb. My belly feels tight, my body too heavy. And my thoughts are shattered and splintered.
That son of a bitch screwed me over.
And he’s done it so completely I can’t fix it.
I don’t go back to my desk. Instead, I head to the restroom. I need a second to breathe, to calm myself. I want to cry and rage at the same time. My job is at risk—the only thing I have outside of the craziness of club life. I don’t want to lose it. I’ve worked so hard to get to where I am. I like coming into the office, seeing Tash and my colleagues. Weirdly, I like spreadsheets and reports. Information makes my brain tick.
And everything I’ve done and worked toward is now at risk.
Because of him.
Because of his fucking lies.
I blink back my tears. I’m almost at the bathroom door, and I know as soon as I’m inside a locked cubicle I’m going to cry. I just have to get there first.
Before I can escape inside, I hear his voice.
