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Check out the third chapter below, and learn about debut author Wanda M. Morris’inspiration for the story here.
I had been summoned to Nate Ashe’s executive suite.
I’d never been to the CEO’s officeuntil now.
Our little “friends with benefits” situation had run its course and still had left me empty-handed.
And when things didn’t work out, this was where decisions were made about who got fired.
Had they found out about me and Michael?
Would this be a repeat of what happened at the law firm?
Whatever the reason for my being here, it couldn’t be good.
The CEO sat behind a massive custom-leather- wrapped desk without a scrap of paper on it.
His plush high-back wing chairs gave the stiff guest chairs in my office a run for their money.
You wanted to see me?"
“Hey, Ellice!
You want a water, a Coke-Cola?”
Nate asked in his easy southern drawl.
“No, thank you.”
“Let’s sit over there where we’ll be more comfortable.”
Nate pointed toward the vintage Egg chair and leather sofa on the other side of the room.
Everything about him was warm and friendly.
Instead, he reigned as the CEO, a wise paternal figure, guiding his family-owned company.
I stood for a moment admiring a picture hanging over the sofa.
“You like that painting, huh?”
“I do.”
“It was a gift from a friend.
He had it commissioned by an artist in Mexico.
Did you know that Indians, Persians, and Carthaginians used elephants as tanks in ancient war battles?”
“I didn’t.”
Nate walked around his desk and stood beside me.
“Elephants are some of the most intelligent creatures on Earth.”
They even grieve the loss of their kin just like humans.
Reminds me of us here at Houghton .
charging forward, sticking together, taking care of our own.
There’s power in that."
The family thing again.
“Have you ever been on safari?”
I asked, trying to edge him off the topic of family.
I gave a half smile.
“C’mon, Ellice,” he said, dropping onto the sofa beneath the painting.
“Let’s take a load off.”
I sat in the chair across from him.
Nate was pleasant enough.
Even so, I was cautious.
A few seconds later, Willow Somerville strolled into Nate’s office without a knock or an announcement.
She wore a bloodred St. John knit sheath and looked the quintessential modern-day southern belleblond and bone-thin.
The two of them were giving me what Vera used to call “a shit-eating grin.”
A smile of the insincere.
My guess: HR was here to act as a witness to my termination.
Somehow, they found out about me and Michael.
Now Michael was dead, and I would be fired.
Fear slinked down my spine.
Nate was the first to speak.
“I thought it might be a good idea to have Willow join us.”
Willow nodded, the same uncomfortable grin still planted across her face.
Nate stared out the window for a beat, then turned back to me.
“I don’t have to tell you how hard Michael’s death has hit us.
Something awful like this doesn’t leave anybody unscathed, least of all the folks who worked with him.
It’s been a bear up here, too.”
I could feel my left eye twitch.
I gazed down at my notepad.
Nate continued, “Board members are calling and asking for details I can’t give ‘em.
Sayles was family, but they’re more concerned about how it all looks.
I looked back at him and smiled at his joke.
Nate smoothed his mustache, his brows pinched together in confusion.
The room went silent.
If he was going to fire me, I wished he would just get on with it already.
I glanced at Willow.
For the first time since entering the office, her expression changed.
She gave a side-eyeof concern at Nate.
“Now, where was I?”
Willow glanced at me, then back at Nate.
“I believe you were just about to discuss the changes in the Legal Department,” she said.
“That’s right.
Ellice, I want you to head up the Legal Department.
I’d like you to replace Michael as Houghton’s executive vice president and general counsel.”
My jaw went slack with surprise.
I’ll check that we maintain Michael’s precedent for paying you handsomely.
We’ll give you a thirty-five percent pay raise.
You’ll get bonus, car allowance, club memberships.
All the perks that go along with the job.
Isn’t that right, Willow?”
I couldn’t breathe.
Here was the promotion I’d been craving, along with a huge salary to boot.
I just didn’t expect it to come about this way.
I could hear my voice quivering slightly.
You’re certainly qualified.
I know you would have been Michael’s first pick.
Did he ever tell you the story behind his hiring you?"
“Uh, I’m not sure I know what story you’re referring to.”
Michael was pretty private.
“Michael was convinced you were the right person to work under him in the Legal Department.
He said you were smart, and you didn’t mind a lil’ hard work.
“I didn’t know that.”
Michael had never told me that story and it made me feel even guiltier now.
“He was right, too.
You’re a smart lawyer and those are the best kind!”
Nate grinned and winked.
“Thank you.”
“And people respect you too.
It takes a lot to navigate your way around an organization like Houghton.”
Nate eyed me for a moment.
“So tell me a lil' bit ‘bout yourself.”
I looked at Willow.
She snapped to, as if she had finally found something of real interest in this meeting.
“Georgetown undergrad, Yale Law.
Worked at Dillon & Beck before coming to Houghton and”
Nate brushed his hands through the air.
“You’re right.
I already know that stuff.
That’s the stuff you’ve done.
I want to know who youare.”
“I guess I’m just one of the many hardworking souls you have in the Legal Department.”
Share a story about the kids I didn’t have and the tennis I didn’t play.
“Now, I’m sure there’s more behind all that educational pedigree.
Where’d you grow up?”
“Here in Atlanta.”
I told the same lie I’d been telling since I left Chillicothe.
It didn’t matter anyway.
Nate leaned forward on the sofa, his ocean-blue eyes anchored on me.
“A beautiful woman like you?”
“Any other family?”
I’m an only child.”
Better not to mention my family, or what was left of it.
“I see.”
“How about you?
Are you from Atlanta?”
I already knew the answer but asked anyway just to move things along.
Born and bred."
Nate leaned back on the sofa.
“You know, Ellice, I think you could be exactly what this company needs right now.
A strong, smart lawyer who can shake off the cobwebs on some of the folks around here.
Isn’t that right, Willow?”
“I couldn’t agree more, Nate.”
“Look, I won’t lie.
The fact that you’re Black is like brown gravy on a biscuit.”
He chuckled, amused by his own joke.
The company never did any diversity training and now it was showing.
Willow’s eyes flitted in my direction before she cleared her throat and cast a raised eyebrow at Nate.
That’s what this was all about.
This wasn’t about recognizing me as a valuable asset to the company.
Nate either pretended not to notice Willow’s signal or missed it altogether because he talked right through it.
“Yep, a Black lady like you is just what we need up here,” he said.
“W-w-well,” I stammered.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence but I’m not sure I .
it’s so soon after”
“Look, I get it.
Michael just died and you think it’s too soon to talk about replacing him.
Trust me, it’s not.
We have a responsibility to this company, to the Houghton family.”
Even though I’d long craved a role in the executive suite, I didn’t wantthisone.
I opened my mouth to offer a more forceful objection, but Nate raised his hand.
“Hear me out.
The board is acting like a bunch of nervous Nellies.
All concerned about the optics of this thing.
But I’m more concerned with continuing the good work Michael started.”
“Michael was a good guy.
A really good guy.
Straight shooter with good moral fiber.
I know he thought very highly of you.
I think you’d be the perfect lawyer to replace him.
Besides, this is the kind of opportunity that’ll do wonders for your career.”
I couldn’t argue with him on that last point.
But Nate was offering me the job full out, not even on an interim basis.
But then, it was highly unusual that the general counsel would commit suicide in his office.
Nate stood from the sofa, eased over to the window, and peered out for a beat.
He turned back to me.
“Listen, I hate the circumstances that brought us to this point.
But we need to keep making the right decisions for the right reasons.
And I think you’re the best person to help us do that.
I know this is coming at ya pretty fast and I don’t expect an answer right now.
Take a little time to think it over.”
okay, I will.
I rose from the chair, finally, grateful to be leaving.
I headed for the elevators with a sense of remorse so strong it made me wince.
I shouldn’t want this job.
Michael died in the very office Nate was now offering me.
I tried to mentally grasp the idea of working in the executive suite.
Logically, I knew this wasn’t true, but it didn’t stop me from feeling that way.
It was a burden I’d borne since Coventry Academy Prep.
But becoming an executive was the job I had dreamed of for years.
Excerpted from the bookALL HER LITTLE SECRETSby Wanda M Morris.
Copyright 2021 by Wanda M. Morris.
From William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
