The CEO's Hidden Gatekeeper

A tired young woman behind a night desk while repairmen cross a dark marble lobby at dawn.

The lights came back at 12:06, and by 12:20 the lobby was full of men with flashlights talking about the elevator like it had a fever.

I stayed at the desk, because that is what the desk is for.

The blackout left a four-minute hole in the sensor on floor three, and a hole in the round the guard should have walked.

The CEO's Hidden Gatekeeper

Chapter 2 of 23

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Synopsis

I run the night desk at Marsh Tower. I decide who reaches the top floor and who waits below. Nobody looks at me. That is how I stay safe. My brother is missing. My mother forgets my name a little more each week. I take extra shifts, pay the care home, and keep my mouth shut. Then Coren Marsh sees me. Not my badge. Me. He watches me handle a blackout and does not look away. I make one bad call and expect to be fired. He keeps me. He moves me closer. He builds walls around me and calls it work. Every wall makes me safer. Every wall makes him harder to leave. He says he protects what is his. I need to know if he is building me a way out or a cage—before I stop wanting the door.