AllFreeNovel
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It takes me a while to spot Sasha at a corner table. As I fall into the seat across from her, taking a napkin from the dispenser and wiping my face. A fine drizzle has started outside, the sky clouding over as the wind whips garbage through the streets.
Her blue eyes are puffy and swollen and a little wild with deep shadows underneath. Her skin is pale and splotchy, her usually perfectly slicked back hair in a messy bun and for the first time her lips are not perfectly tinted with her Gwen Stefani signature red.
“How are you holding up?” I ask, knowing what the answer will be but not sure how else to start the conversation.
“How does it look?”
I shrink back into my chair. “Look, Sasha. I promise, I had no idea. And I didn't get you fired. I even asked the twins, Mariana and Martha, about your sudden vacation. They just shrugged and blew me off.”
“I didn’t tell them. I didn’t tell anyone, but I was sure word had gotten around. I was humiliated. That group is nothing without me.” She chews the corner of a broken fingernail, then points it at me.
I flatten myself against the seat as the fury and distaste pour off her in waves.
“I want to help. Tell me how I can help.” I know what I can do. “Wait. I know.”
“What is it?” Her eyes narrow.
“I can ask Jack—” I catch myself before I say his last name. “I can ask someone in the executive office to review your case again and bring you back. Rehire you.”
“No, you can’t,” she scoffs. “You’re an intern.”
“Actually…” I bite my lip. I don’t really want to tell her, but I have to say something. “The fact is…” I look around. “I'm trusting you with confidential information because I want to help.”
She leans closer, her eyes clearing. “What?”
“The CEO, Jensen Harold, isn’t the only one in charge. I mean, he’s the boss, for sure, but, well, someone else owns the company. He just doesn’t usually get involved in the day-to-day operations.”
“Who?”
I inhale deeply. “Jackson Carter.”
Her brows lift higher. “Really? How do you know that?”
I don’t like the hardness in her eyes, but I can’t step back anymore.
I hesitate, wondering how much I should say. But Jack did give me the collar, didn’t he? He said that it was to tell the world that I was his. “Well… He and I are…”
She gives me a disgusted look. “You’re what? Old friends from Nowheresville? Your father’s went to college together?” Her eyes narrow then widen with revelation. “You’re fucking him, aren’t you? You’re practically jailbait.”
My cheeks feel like they are on fire. “Why are you being like this? I'm trying to help you.”
“Don’t fucking help me until you help yourself.”
She picks up her phone and starts poking at the screen.
“What do you mean? Help myself...”
“Here, look.” She turns her phone toward me.
There’s a headline on the screen, dated today from some weird pseudo-news site.
My cheeks are still hot but my fingers are cold as I read...
Jackson William Carter, in the hot seat as several employees come forward with accusations of sexual harassment and coercion.
I’m up so fast my chair knocks over and clatters to the tile floor. The few other people around us turn to stare at me, but my eyes are on Sasha. “You're lying.”
Her brows lift and she laughs. “I'm lying? Honey, I didn’t make this up.”
I feel like I’m on the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival my mom took me to for my birthday when I turned eleven.
This is why he keeps us a secret.
This is why his limo picks us both up outside the building and we drive back to his apartment. I haven’t met anyone in his life besides Alice who he probably pays to keep quiet.
Is that why he doesn’t want anyone to know he owns this company? Why his office is tucked away with its own private elevator?
He hides behind an office and a bogus CEO, creating a whole elaborate scheme to get off on his sexual needs? His Daddy fetish. The play like I’m his little girl…
I cup my mouth as my body jerks with a retch. “I think I'm going to be sick.”
“Imagine how many other employees he's fucking right now.”
My head spins wildly as I remember how sweet he’s been, how gentle, how generous and compassionate.
“Not my Jack.”
“My Jack?” Sasha drawls. She crosses her arms over her chest and regards with me cool contempt. “He's your Jack, now? Honey, he’s hiding for a good reason and you were naïve enough to fall for it. Think about it.”
“No!” I laugh, and I think it might be shock. Because there’s nothing funny going on here. “I don’t believe any of it. He wouldn’t force anyone…”
“Did he force you?”
“He loves me.” That’s not an answer, and I know it’s not.
