“How was your weekend?” Jaqui asked, poking her head in my office early Monday morning. “Any more dates with your handsome suitor?”

I grinned. “I had a wonderful night with him Friday,” I told her, thinking of what we had done in this very room and grinning. “But then he had to work all weekend, so I didn’t get to see him much.”

But, we did get to chat through text messages and phone calls. Those were still pretty amazing ways to get to hear from him.

“That’s too bad,” Jaqui replied. “He’s easy on the eyes. I still haven’t figured out where I know him from, though. When do you see him again?”

“I get to see him Tuesday. We have a fun date planned. I can’t wait. He’s going to work on my cooking skills.”

“He is a brave man to put you in the kitchen.” She grinned as she leaned against the door frame.

“Yeah, someone has to teach me eventually, right?” I said with a chuckle. “Hopefully I don’t burn down the place. Or poison him. At least the odds are good I’ll only do one or the other.”

“You just light up when you talk about him,” Jaqui remarked. She shook her head and smiled. “You are totally in love with him.”

“Maybe.” I shrugged, trying to play it off, but I couldn’t help but think of how I lit up when he touched me. The way he made me feel when he looked at me with those blue eyes. The way my heart sped up when he called me and the way we talked until three in the morning on the phone.

“And there’s that in-love smile.” Jaqui pointed to the smile currently filling my face without me realizing. “You’ve got it bad.”

“Maybe a little,” I admitted. Jaqui just laughed and pushed herself off the door frame.

“Remember, if he has a friend...” Jaqui shrugged and waved as she left my office.

I smiled as I got back to work. I was almost done with the research for Anastasia. I only had a few more things to add. It wasn’t my best work, but then I didn’t exactly have enough time to do my best. I had put everything I had into it, though.

Just because I wasn’t getting the credit didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do a good job.

I put another set of files into the scanner and watched as they uploaded. It was one that Audrey would most likely want. Guilt washed through me. I didn’t have any files for her. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

My father was going to lose his reputation and it was my fault. I had to do something. I was running out of time.

I took out my phone, checked to make sure no one was walking down the hallway and snapped a picture of the file. It felt wrong. It felt like I was betraying everything I stood for. Guilt made my stomach twist and all the happy feelings I had dissolved like tissue paper in rain.

“It’s for Dad,” I told myself, putting my phone away. I wanted to delete it.

I did a another few boxes before my stomach began to rumble. I needed to eat something.

I stood up and stretched, purposefully not looking at my phone. I didn’t want to think about what I had on there.

Jaqui knocked at my door, making me jump. I yelled and put my phone in my pocket, shame heating my face. I knew she had no way of knowing what was on my phone, but that didn’t make the dirty feeling of betraying her go away.

“Sorry,” Jaqui said. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay. I was just in my head.” I did my best to smile. “What can I do for you?”

“The coffee machine broke. I was going to run over to the shop and grab some. Want to come?”

“And escape from the boxes for a little bit? Yes, please!” I grabbed my jacket and purse. “Plus, I can grab breakfast.”

“You mean Henry isn’t bringing you that too?” she teased as we headed down the stairs.

“Ha ha,” I replied, rolling my eyes. Jaqui chuckled.

We both waved to Gus as we walked out. Outside, the sun was shining with hardly a cloud in sight. After the rain of the other day, it was a welcome change. I took a deep breath of fresh, cool air and we started to walk.

“I have orders for Gus, Bethany, Janet, and Bob,” Jaqui said, pulling out a small piece of paper.

“Oh, so I see. I’m the hired help to carry all these. That’s why you asked me to come along,” I teased.

“Well, you are the new hire. You get the fun jobs,” she replied. “Just be glad I don’t make you scrub toilets.”

I made a face and Jaqui laughed. She pulled open the glass door to the coffee shop. The scent of roasted coffee beans and syrup filled my nose. I looked up at the menu and decided to order one of their breakfast sandwiches. I was really hungry now that I could smell food.

Jaqui and I stood in line, chatting about our lives. My phone burned in my back pocket with the image of the file I had stolen. I kept imagining giant neon signs pointing to me with the words, “traitor” and “thief.”

I wasn’t sure how long I could do this.

We ordered our food and coffee and stood off to the side of the counter while we waited for it to be made. I looked up to see the news on a lone TV. It appeared to be breaking news, with a man in a dark suit waving off reporters as he hurried into a car.

Jaqui followed my gaze. “Oh that. It’s been all over the news all morning.”

“What happened?” I asked. “I haven’t heard.”

“That guy is a congressman. Allegedly, he let some information leak to an oil company about some new drilling laws coming down the line. The oil company bought mining rights to the preserved area before the information was publicly available.” Jaqui shook her head as she looked up at the TV. “He is so screwed.”

“What do you mean?” My stomach turned to ice. His story was sounding far too similar to my own.

“He sold secret information. He’s going to go to prison. It doesn’t matter how much money he made off the sale of the info.” Jaqui narrowed her eyes. “I can’t stand people like that. They disgust me.”

Guilt hung around my shoulders like wet cloth. They called my name for my coffee and sandwich, but I suddenly had no appetite. My phone still burned against my body.

“Aria? Your coffee is ready,” Jaqui said, giving me a gentle bump. “You sure you’re okay? You went all pale again.”

“I’m fine,” I stuttered. I reached mindlessly for my coffee and knocked it over, spilling a good amount on my shirt. I wiped at it, but it was too late. I had coffee all over my cream-colored shirt. “I guess I just need more sleep.”

“Do you want another coffee?” Jaqui asked, handing me some napkins.

“No, it’s fine,” I said, dabbing at my shirt. “I managed not to spill all of it.”

“Are you almost caught up on your boxes? I’ve seen you hard at work all morning. Gus says you stayed late on Friday,” Jaqui said, picking up one of the drink carriers. I threw away the used napkins and picked up the second one along with my sandwich.

“Yeah, just trying to get ahead of things,” I replied. I didn’t tell her that I had been busy doing research for my stepsister and not totally focusing on the job I was hired for. Again, I felt like a terrible person. I was lying to my boss about so many things.

She smiled and together we headed back to the office. Gus waved to us as we came in.

“They brought that thief in,” Gus said to Jaqui. He nodded toward one of his screens. “They are going to crucify him.”

“You’ve been watching it?” I asked. I’d kind of been hoping that no one would notice something like this.

Gus nodded. “It’s big news. No one can believe he did it. Seemed like a decent guy and everything. It’s all over every channel.”

“He deserves everything coming to him,” Jaqui spat. “Stealing state secrets to make a profit? I hope he goes to jail and rots.”

I wanted to crawl under a rock and die.

I was scum. I was less than scum.

“When our Aria is in the senate, she won’t tolerate stuff like that,” Gus announced proudly. “You’ll be one of the good ones.”

“Yeah, right.” I was already a disappointment.

I handed off the coffees to Gus and went up to my office. There I promptly deleted the picture file off my phone. I felt like washing my phone off with soap or possibly burning it just to make sure the file was gone. It didn’t feel clean enough just to delete it. I restarted it several times just to be sure.

I couldn’t do this.

I wouldn’t do this.