He Kept Me a Secret for Three Years, So I Exposed Him in One EmailChapter 2

At 2:05 on Saturday afternoon, Ryan handed me the menu.

"Your mom said work keeps you busy. I was half expecting you to cancel."

"I won't. I don't have anything scheduled today."

The moment I said it, Ethan called.

I declined the call. He immediately called again.

Ryan glanced at the screen. "If it's urgent, go ahead. I don't mind."

Ethan skipped hello. "Madison overwrote the test-environment data. Come in and restore it."

"There's a snapshot from last night on the backup server."

"She doesn't know how to use it."

"IT Operations does."

His voice turned cold. "Chloe Bennett, I'm not asking. The client is joining the sign-off call in thirty minutes."

My grip tightened around the phone. "This is my day off."

"You receive the highest performance bonus on the project. That comes with responsibility. Send me your location. I'll have a car pick you up."

He hung up.

Ryan refilled my water. "Is your boss always like that?"

"The project is wrapping up. Things go wrong sometimes."

"Want me to drive you?"

I should have said no.

Then a message from Mom flashed across my screen.

"Did you meet him? Don't you dare leave after ten minutes this time."

I set my phone facedown. "No. Let's finish lunch first."

Half an hour later, I arrived at the office.

Madison sat at her desk wiping away tears. Ethan stood behind her, quietly walking her through the recovery process.

When he saw me, he checked his watch. "Forty-seven minutes."

"The client isn't online yet."

"We don't run projects on luck." He stepped aside. "You have fifteen minutes."

I sat down and started typing. Madison hovered beside me.

"I'm so sorry, Chloe. It was my first time touching the production environment. I honestly didn't know this could happen."

"Who gave you production access?"

She looked at Ethan.

He answered for her. "I did. She's interviewing for the fellowship. She can't learn how the product works if no one lets her near it."

"Production isn't a practice environment."

"If something goes wrong, we have people who can fix it." He watched the progress bar. "Handle this first. We can discuss the rest later."

The data was restored in fifteen minutes.

The client joined on time. Ethan had Madison lead the demonstration while I sat outside the camera frame, switching screens for her.

She read two figures incorrectly. I fed her the corrections under my breath.

At the end, the client smiled. "Madison picked up your core system remarkably fast. You must be an excellent mentor, Ethan."

Ethan didn't correct him. "She learns quickly."

I disconnected the presentation. "Anything else?"

"Wait."

Ethan called me into a small meeting room and offered me a cup of tea. "How was the date?"

"Good."

"You decided that quickly?"

I looked at him. "You're the one who told me to meet him."

"I told you to meet him. I didn't tell you to neglect work for him."

"I didn't neglect anything."

"If Madison hadn't contacted me in time, the damage would already have been done." His voice wasn't loud, but every word landed on me. "You're responsible for training her. Stop acting as if this has nothing to do with you."

I laughed suddenly. "She gets access, deletes the data, can't restore it, and somehow every part of that is my fault?"

"She's new."

"Were you this understanding when I was new?"

Ethan paused. "You and she are different."

Three years ago, after my first operational mistake, he made me write a twenty-page postmortem and spend two hours answering questions in a conference room.

That night, he waited downstairs and told me he was hard on me because he wanted me to go further.

Apparently strictness and favoritism could both be dressed up as noble intentions.

Madison poked her head through the door. "Ethan, I can't find the core model for my fellowship presentation. Can Chloe share her analysis framework with me?"

Ethan nodded. "Have her send it to you."

"I built that framework for my promotion review."

"A framework can be reused. It isn't a signed deliverable." He pulled out his phone. "Is Ryan still waiting for you?"

"He already left."

The corners of Ethan's mouth relaxed. "I knew you weren't actually interested."

The next second, Ryan's message appeared on my screen.

"I really enjoyed talking with you. If you're open to it, I'd love to see you again."

Ethan saw it too.

His faint smile disappeared, but he still added Madison to the BluePeak project channel.

A new announcement followed.

Madison Reed would lead the fellowship interview and BluePeak client presentation.

I would provide all technical support.