Page 156 of Fighting Mr. Knight

“Have you seen him?” I ask in a small voice, hating that I need to ask Max.

“Who,Jack?” he barks in a tone that says I shouldn’t be asking. “No, he hasn’t been in all week. He’s taking calls from home.” I hear another harsh sigh. “You’ll need to return your Lexington laptop.”

The thought of going to the Lexington office makes me recoil in horror. “Can’t I give it to Nisha?”

“No,” he snaps. “You need to give it back personally as part of the off-boarding. You know this.”

I close my eyes. “Fine, I’ll bring it in.”

“Today, Bonnie.”

Fuck.

I guess the sooner I get this over and done with the better, especially if Jack isn’t in.

“My promotion . . .”

“Is unlikely,” he finishes. “Just for this round.”

“That’s bullshit,” I say, stunned. “I deserve that promotion.”

He lets out a long breath like he’s talking to an unreasonable child.“We need to let the dust settle. With the situation with your dad, the partners can’t be seen to be promoting you in front of Jack.”

I was wrong. Olivia wasn’t the biggest threat to my relationship with Max. The two little dicks, Bradshaw and Brown are the ones he’s in bed with.

***

My blue shift dress hangs off me with a little more space around the hips than it did last week. My heart hammers in my chest as I step out of the lift onto the fortieth floor.

Nisha greets me at the lifts for moral support. “Hi, love.”

The office is packed. Everyone else looks too normal, tapping away on their laptops. Their lives haven’t been royally fucked up this past week.

My boyfriend hates me.

My dad hates me.

Now my bosses hate me.

“Hey.” I smile sadly. “Let’s get this over and done with. I just need to hand in the laptop at the tech bar.”

She tuts. “This is shit that you have to leave the project. You’ve worked so hard and you haven’t actually done anything wrong. It doesn’t seem fair.”

“It’s fine,” I say with a small shrug. “So, the truth . . . is everyone gossiping about the picture of me and Jack?”

She nibbles on her lip as we start to walk down the aisle. Unfortunately for me, the support guys sit at the far end of the floor.

“The truth, Nisha,” I press in a low voice, ignoring the turning heads.

“Yes.” She sighs. “Some of the admins found the link and have been showing everyone.”

I swallow nervously. “What do they think?”

“You had a one-night stand,” she says through a false smile.

All eyeballs are on me. Those colleagues who aren’t looking at me are nudged by their neighbours of my incoming presence.

“I mean it looks like a lover’s tiff a mile off because it is. All the women are obviously jealous. None of them know about your dad though.”

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