The Corner Office
The Signature Line

The Offer

August 25, 2026 · Part 7 of 10 · 2 min

I stepped out before he could come find me. Better to control how this started.

"I couldn't sleep," I said. "Thought I'd get ahead on the queue."

Voss studied me the way you study a number that doesn't add up. "That's dedicated of you." He glanced at Box 47, still sitting open on the cart where I'd left it. "You know that batch is under review. I'd hate for anything in there to get logged incorrectly before we finish reconciling it."

"I'll leave it exactly as it is."

"Good." He smiled, and it didn't reach anywhere near his eyes. "You've been a real asset here, Naomi. Better than most of the temps we get. I mentioned to Corinne we should look at converting you — full-time, benefits, a real badge instead of the visitor one."

It should have felt like good news. Eleven months of temp work, and here it was, offered like a favor, at 9:40 p.m., three feet from the file with my father's death folded inside it.

"I appreciate that," I said, because I needed him to walk away believing I meant it.

He did. I didn't sleep.

Corinne called me in again two days later, this time with an actual offer letter on the desk between us — salary, healthcare, a start date. "Gerald speaks very highly of you," she said. "People who understand discretion go far here. That's worth more than people think, especially in a department like ours, where things can get... misread, out of context."

I signed nothing. I said I needed to think it over, and she let that stand, though her eyes stayed on me a beat too long as I left.

I was still holding the unsigned offer letter that evening when Priya called me, her voice tight and fast in a way I'd never heard from her.

"Turn on the news," she said. "Site 4. There's been an accident."

Continue the story Part 8: The Second Accident →

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