<b>Chapter </b><b>101 </b>
Monday started with another rejection for a job she had applied for.
Sutton stared at the email on her screen… it was short. She wasn’t suitable for the role. What a joke. She could
write code in her sleep. Just because she was a model didn’t make her stupid.
She sat there for a second longer than she should’ve, cursor hovering over the trash icon. Then she hit delete.
Because if she didn’t, she might have replied to their email in a very unprofessional way. She was ready to scream
every version of frustration in her head before she even logged in.
Stacey, sitting beside her, heard her sigh. “You okay?”
The younger girl worked on reception with her. Three days a week.
“Hmm…” Sutton turned and looked at the woman.
“I asked if you were okay… You let out a huge sigh? Bad news?”
“No… No bloody news, more like it.”
“What?”
Sutton shook her head. “Nothing. It’s not important.” Well, it was, but she wasn’t about to talk about it.
She shifted in her seat and winced. The baby had started pressing down harder. Her OB said it was normal, something about head engagement and pelvic pressure, but it felt like being punched from the inside out.
She rubbed at the ache under the desk and took a sip of lukewarm tea she’d forgotten about. Ethan had brought it this morning, along with a note written on a napkin that just said: “If today sucks, let me be your buffer. If today.
doesn’t suck, it’s a trap.”
Jake was one of the men that had arrived with Nicole. He was so different from that bitch. At first Sutton had
thought it was fake, but he was nice. And kind.
She didn’t smile, but she kept the napkin.
The elevator dinged. Sutton didn’t look up.
By the sound of the heels hitting the tiles she know who is was. Nicole.
Out of the corner of her eye Sutton saw her move straight to reception, hair pulled tight, mouth already smirking.
She didn’t even bother pretending anymore.
“Morning,” she said, too bright.
Sutton braced, Waiting to see how the cow was going to take aim at her today.
<b>1/4 </b>
“You’ve got ten minutes to make my coffee and have it on my desk. Just remember tick–tock. He’ll <b>be </b><b>here </b><b>by </b><b>next </b>week. I don’t want the first thing he sees to be a human incubator with swollen ankles. Found a new job yet<b>?</b>”
Sutton didn’t answer. She’d learned not to give Nicole air.
Nicole tapped the desk. “You should just quit.”
“I’m not due yet,” Sutton said tly. She didn’t know what Nicole’s problem was. Surely she’d worked with
pregnant women before. It just didn’t make sense.
“But you are… distracting.”
She heard Stacey gasp beside her. Nicole didn’t even spare her a nce.
Sutton stood up. “Do you really want coffee, or are you just here for the performance?”
Nicole leaned in. Her voice dropped fake sugar. “I’ve already prepped the CEO. He knows who matters here. And
you?”
She didn’t finish the sentence. Just turned and walked off, hips swinging like she’d just closed a deal.
As soon as she was out of sight, Sutton headed to the coffee machine and made the wicked witch her poison.
Lunch was crackers and ginger ale. She was feeling a little sick.
She sat in the break room with Jake, both of them pretending they weren’t watching Nicole hold court with two
department heads like she was the new CEO.
“She’s treating you like a chess piece,” Jake muttered low. “Like she’s waiting for you to snap.”
Sutton didn’t answer right away.
“She thinks if she makes it hell enough, I’ll leave on my own.”
“Are you?”
Sutton looked down at her belly. “I’ve got two more interviews this week. I’m not dumb, Jake. Cyber10 didn’t hire. me because they liked me. I was a stopgap. A body in a chair. She’s making sure I know it.”
He tore a piece of napkin, started folding it. “I’ve seen stopgaps. You’re not one.”
“That’s sweet,” she said, “but it doesn’t change anything.”
“No. But maybe you should finish your code for the software you’re building and shove it in her face,” he said. <b>“</b><b>Just </b>
in case<b>.</b><b>” </b>
She met his eyes. He was the only one here who knew she was still coding. Quietly. Something <b>she </b><b>did </b><b>at </b><b>her </b><b>desk </b>in five–minute windows between answering calls and visitors.
She nodded once. “I just hope your boss isn’t like her, because I feel sorry for Cyber10 if he is. It was bad enough with thest management team.”
Jake shook his head. “Trust me, he isn’t. If he wasn’t so straight, I’d jump his bones. He’s a nice guy- arrogant at
times, but he knows everyone’s names and about their families.”
Jake looked back at Nicole. “Nicole has two faces. I don’t think he’s ever seen the real her.”
Sutton raised an eyebrow at him, silently saying, I’ll believe it when I see it. Because the way Nicole was going,
Sutton felt like it would be any day now before she was fired.
Later that afternoon, Nicole had started clearing rooms for “executive use.” Some admin intern cried in the bathroom. And when Sutton returned from her ten–minute walk break, the nt on her desk was gone.
No note.
Just… gone.
She stared at the empty space where it used to sit a cheap little fern she’d bought with her own money.
Nicole passed behind her desk around 4:17 PM and said, “I thought you’d appreciate a more professional
workspace.”
That was it. No furtherment. No apology. God, the woman could suck all the good energy out of a room.
That night, she walked into the apartment she shared with Keira, dead on her feet.
Keira looked up from the couch, paused the show she wasn’t watching, and waited.
Sutton dropped her bag by the door.
“They cleared my desk,” she said.
Keira blinked. “Like… they fired you?”
“No. Just took my nt. Nicole said it wasn’t professional.”
Keira stood slowly. “I swear to God. I will eat this woman.”
“Don’t eat her,” Sutton said. “I need her to see me win. I want to prove to everyone here at Cyber10 that I’m not an
airhead.”
Keira stared at her, then nodded. “Okay. So we burn her slowly. Cool.”
Sutton walked to the kitchen. Poured herself a ss of water.
“I just don’t know what her problem is,” she said quietly. “It’s like she’s prepping for battle.”
“She doesn’t know you’ve already started digging trenches.” Keira grinned.
“No. But she’s going to find out.”
Keira leaned in the doorway, arms crossed, watching her sister drink.
“If you need my help, Sutton, I’m here. But I really think you should go out on your own. Stop your ownpany.”
“Maybe someday after the baby is born.”