Chapter 1

I pushed open the office door and, out of habit, stepped in with my right foot first.

Wayne Fox jumped up from the couch, clapping.

"Katherine, I guessed right again this time. It was the right foot!"

I froze where I stood, my fingers tightening on the proposal I'd stayed up three nights straight to finish.

Wayne leaned in close to Katherine Gilbert, nudging her arm to hurry her along.

"A bet's a bet. No backing out."

"I order you to go shred the file in his hand."

The words had barely left his mouth before Katherine got up and pulled the papers right out of my grip.

She flipped on the shredder, and the thin stack hovered over the feed slot.

I caught her arm.

"The partner arrives tomorrow. Don't gamble with the company's interests."

The next second, her fingers let go.

The machine swallowed the file whole and spat out confetti.

Katherine turned her head to look at me, the coldness in her eyes too thick to melt.

"Wayne's got a lively personality. What's wrong with humoring him a little?"

"I promise, this is the last time."

There it was again.

I let out a short laugh, the hand at my side trembling faintly.

Ever since Wayne joined the company, Katherine had gone along with him on countless absurd bets.

Every time, she'd taken something that mattered to me and destroyed it as the stake, without asking.

My newly reissued ID, the medication for my emergency low blood sugar, the watch I'd bought with three months of saved wages.

And every time, she'd tossed off the same light promise that there wouldn't be a next time.

Which is why, a month ago, I'd already handed in my resignation.

From now on, I wouldn't be the clueless chip in their games.

1.

Katherine settled back into her chair as if she weren't the one who'd just fed the proposal into the shredder.

"I want the newest version on my desk before tomorrow morning."

"I know you can do it."

That line again.

When Wayne scraped his foot playing ball, she drove him to and from work for a solid month.

When I broke my leg and was hobbling around in a cast on crutches, she said I moved too slowly and told me to take the subway.

The moment Wayne sneezed, she booked him an appointment with a top specialist.

When I had the flu and burned to a hundred and four, half out of my mind, she told me to order some medicine off a delivery app.

Every time it came to this, she'd say it to me in that same tone.

"Adrian Swanson, I know you can do it."

"Wayne's different from you. He's delicate and willful, no sense of restraint. If I don't keep an eye on him, sooner or later something will go wrong."

I used to think that was trust. Only now do I see it for what it was: she didn't care.

I stayed at the office until the small hours before I barely finished the newest version of the proposal.

When I walked out the front doors, everything outside was pitch black, even the streetlights dead.

It was too late for anyone to take a ride request, so I opened my chat with Katherine.

"Are you asleep? Could you come pick me up?"

The message sank without a trace. I waited half an hour and got no reply.

I figured she must have turned in early.

So I scanned a rental bike and forced myself to pedal for forty minutes through the cold wind.

By the time I locked it up, all ten of my fingers were frozen stiff as carrots.

But when I got home, the light in the study was still on.

I couldn't tell what was being said, only that laughter kept spilling out.

Katherine had the call on speaker, and on the other end was Wayne.

"Don't forget what you promised me."

"Relax, I won't forget."

When she saw me, the smile slowly faded from her face.

"I'll hang up now. Get some sleep. If you can't get up tomorrow you don't have to come in for the morning, I'll fill in your attendance for you."

I took off my coat and hung my bag on the rack.

Bending to change my shoes, I remembered a day last month when I'd forgotten to clock in.

When HR came to find me, Katherine happened to be standing right there.

In front of everyone, she tore up the paperwork I'd submitted to make up for it.

"A bad memory is no excuse for slipping up."

"This counts as a day of unexcused absence. Consider it a lesson."

The HR rep's gaze drifted between me and the wedding ring on her hand.

In the end all they could squeeze out was a dry line.

"Ms. Gilbert really is impartial."

Katherine had never tried to hide her relationship with me.

On my first day at the company, she'd announced in front of everyone that we were husband and wife.

Some of the staff weren't happy about it.

"Another one who got in through connections."

The voice wasn't loud, but everyone there heard it clearly.

Katherine swept her eyes over the room, her look sharp, her words sparing no one.

"I won't let personal ties affect my judgment."

"If anything, I'll hold Adrian to a stricter standard than anyone else."

"At this company, there is only ever a chain of command."

And she meant it.

She handed me the heaviest workload, cut my project timelines, and dumped every difficult, thorny client on me all at once.

I could only grit my teeth and take it, never daring to voice a single complaint.

But now, all at once, I didn't want to take it anymore.

As I turned, Katherine was leaning against the study doorframe, the look behind her gold-rimmed glasses soft as water.

But the words that came out chilled the warmth I'd only just gotten back right out of me.

"Wayne's footing at the company still isn't solid."

"That project you're running right now, just hand it over to him."