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“We better treat her right ’cause we’ll be working for her one day soon.”
“Hey, I wonder if there are any Middleton women looking for husbands. But you know, she’s also wild as hell. I’ve heard she used to do all sorts of things, if you get my meaning.”
“Oh yeah? Well, maybe that’s why she got that promotion!”
“Did you ever hang out at the Golden Nugget downtown?”
“Yeah, a while back. Why?”
“The way I hear it, she used to be a permanent fixture there and knew several of the regulars quite intimately.”
“Damn! Wish I’d been one of ’em.”
“I know, right?”
Then they both laughed. I couldn’t move. My brain was processing and I was trying to piece the puzzle together. What did Pearce and the Middletons have to do with MedSoft? I had to get to the bottom of this. And how did they know about my past? I’d forgotten I’d been eavesdropping and didn’t realize the conversation had ceased altogether, but suddenly I was face-to-face with the two culprits.
I’m not sure who was more shocked, them or me. I didn’t dare speak, because I knew that would admit guilt.
“Lexi, how long have you been standing there?” Greg asked.
“Long enough,” I replied.
He looked at me, steady in the eyes, and said, “Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
“Know what?” I asked, playing dumb.
“That the Middletons own MedSoft.”
And there it was. I had to get away from these two guys before my anger went haywire. Why hadn’t Pearce told me? He’d let me go on all these months and never mentioned it one single time.
“What does it matter?” I asked.
“Oh, come on. Everyone here knows. They talk about it behind your back all the time.”
Something snapped in me at his statement. Everything I had done here, everything I’d worked for, I truly believed I had done on my own. Maybe I hadn’t, but dammit it all, I had worked my butt off here and no one was going to take credit for what I had done.
“Let’s get one thing straight. I’m the one who comes to work here every day and I work my butt off trying to make this company a success. If you have an issue with my work ethic or my results, then fine, you can bring it up to me and we can discuss it all you want. But, Greg, don’t you ever bring my relationship with Pearce into this office again because my personal life, past, present, or future is none of your damn business. Am I clear?”
Greg was clearly taken aback by my stance as he answered, “Yes, very.”
“Do you have an issue with my work or my results?”
“No, I don’t.”
“Then I don’t want to hear another word about this again.” I turned and walked back to the party with a brittle smile pasted on my face.
Twenty-Three
I drove straight to Pearce’s after work. I knew he was home because I texted him before leaving work. When I walked in the door, he knew something was wrong.
“What’s happened?”
I looked at him, and was so furious that tears puddled in my eyes. I abhorred reacting this way, being so angry that I cried.
Not mincing words, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell me the Middletons owned MedSoft?”
His face visibly deflated. His eyebrows slumped and his mouth turned down at the corners. The sight of this told me a million things that his words didn’t.
