Page 19 of The Secretary Volume II

I should be grateful for this job.Grateful for the paycheck.Grateful I don’t have to spend another night in my car, curled around the emergency brake, scrolling through Zillow listings I can’t afford.

I should feel relieved.

Instead, I feel like I’m waiting for something to go wrong.

Maybe it’s because my last attempt at a fresh start ended in divorce papers.Not the messy kind with lawyers and screaming and fights over who gets the good couch—just a slow unraveling.A quiet, mutual acknowledgment that we weren’t the same people we were at twenty-five.

Five years of marriage, and the only real betrayal was time.

It happens.People grow apart.

That’s what I tell myself.That’s what I believe.

It still feels like failure.

And I’m not looking to go down that road again.

Which is why this has to work.

11

Lena

I’ve been circling the hallways trying to find the break room.When I finally do, it’s as aggressively modern as everything else in this place.A row of gleaming vending machines.A long white counter with a fully stocked espresso station.A fridge that is so quiet it feels ominous.

And—

A woman.

Standing near the coffee machine, her back to me.

At first, she blends in.Dark hair.Stiff posture.Something about the way she carries herself feels...too deliberate.Just another employee, no different than the rest of us, but there’s somethingoff.

She’s not moving.Not drinking.Not scrolling her phone.

She’s standing there, motionless, staring at a yogurt cup in her hands like it’s a philosophical dilemma.

Her expression is blank.Too blank.

She looks…off.

Not tired.Not zoned out.Disconnected.Like she’s buffering.

I clear my throat.“Morning.”

She blinks, like she forgot she wasn’t alone.Then she smiles.

Too fast.Too bright.

“Good morning,” she says, and the words are… wrong.

Not in what she’s saying, buthowshe says it.Like she’s reading from a script.Like she’s had to practice the words.

I shift my coffee to my other hand.“New here too?”

Her smile doesn’t change.“I work here.”

NotI’ve worked here for X years.NotI’ve been here a while.Just?—