Chapter 2 - Two Weeks To Burn An Empire
At 6:55 AM, the door to Adrienne’s corner office opened.
Simone walked in, dressed in her usual sharp black blazer and pencil skirt, her curls pinned back into a professional, restrained bun. The glamorous woman in the red dress from the night before was gone, replaced once again by the flawless, stoic secretary.
She placed his steaming mug of black coffee on the right side of his desk, exactly as she had done for nearly thirteen hundred mornings.
"Good morning, Mr. Romano," she said, her voice smooth and unbothered. "Your eight o'clock meeting with the port authority has been moved to ten. The draft for the Brooklyn dock acquisition is on your tablet. You have a lunch call with Chicago at noon."
Adrienne didn't touch the coffee. He leaned back in his leather chair, watching her every movement, searching for a sign of guilt, nervousness, or betrayal.
Simone picked up her leather notepad, preparing to leave. "If that is all—"
"Who is Daniel Hayes to you, Simone?"
The question hung in the air, heavy and suffocused. Simone froze for a microsecond—so brief that anyone else would have missed it. But Adrienne had spent five years studying her micro-expressions.
She turned slowly to face him. "I didn't realize my personal life was part of my morning briefing, Mr. Romano."
"When your personal life walks into my private estate, it becomes my business," Adrienne said, standing up. He walked around the desk, closing the distance between them until he could smell her faint perfume—vanilla and amber, entirely different from the sterile scent of his office. "You’ve worked for me for five years. You know everything about me. My schedule, my family, my habits, my security."
"And you knew nothing about me," Simone replied quietly, looking directly into his eyes without flinching. "Because you never cared to ask."
She reached into her blazer pocket, pulled out a sealed white envelope, and set it gently beside his untouched coffee.
May you like
Adrienne stared at the paper. "What is this?"
"My formal two-week notice," Simone said, her voice steady, though a flicker of raw emotion flashed deep within her eyes. "I am resigning, Mr. Romano. Find another secretary."
