The Box on her Desk
1270 Words
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Episode 5: The Box on Her Desk
The next morning, Aurora sat at her desk, jaw tight and thoughts tangled. She couldn’t stop replaying the voice on the phone:
> “Back away from Damian Wolfe… or I’ll make you wish you had.”
She didn’t recognize the voice, but the words haunted her. Threats weren’t part of her job description.
Yet here she was, working in a glass office, inches from the man everyone seemed either to fear, desire—or destroy.
She arrived even earlier than yesterday—7:20 a.m.—hoping for clarity in the quiet. Instead, she found something else.
A box.
A small, black velvet-covered box sat on her desk.
No note. No name. Just the box.
Aurora stared at it, heart skipping.
She looked around. No one else was on the floor yet. The elevator hadn’t dinged once. Cameras? Maybe. But this felt too quiet. Too targeted.
With trembling fingers, she opened it.
Inside was a single item: a silver pen. Sleek. Engraved.
She leaned closer. The engraving read:
"You’re in too deep, sweetheart."
Her stomach dropped.
---
8:12 a.m.
Damian strode into the office in his usual tailored silence. He gave Aurora a glance as he passed—then stopped.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She blinked. “Nothing.”
“You’re pale.”
“I… didn’t sleep well.”
He narrowed his eyes, clearly unconvinced.
“You don’t have to tell me now,” he said finally. “But if something’s wrong, I need to know. Especially if it concerns me.”
She hesitated. “Why would it concern you?”
Damian gave her a long, slow look. “Because everything around me eventually becomes a weapon.”
Then he walked into his office and shut the door.
---
10:43 a.m.
Clarissa walked by holding a tray of coffee. She paused when she saw the box on Aurora’s desk.
“Ooh. Mysterious gift?”
Aurora closed the box and tucked it into her drawer. “Nothing special.”
Clarissa smirked. “Secret admirer or silent threat?”
Aurora didn’t smile. “Would you believe… both?”
Clarissa tilted her head. “Ah. You’ve entered phase two.”
“What’s phase two?”
“First they ignore you. Then they threaten you. Then they try to ruin you. It’s the unspoken hierarchy of being close to Damian Wolfe.”
“Who’s they?”
Clarissa leaned in. “Anyone who thinks they have more claim to him than you do.”
Aurora shook her head. “But I don’t have a claim.”
Clarissa gave a dark laugh. “Sweetheart, the second he called you efficient instead of replaceable, you became the biggest threat in the building.”
---
1:17 p.m. – Meeting Room
Aurora stood behind Damian during the weekly executive team presentation. He hadn’t said a word about the box, the engraving, or her unease.
But he noticed things. He always noticed.
“Slide seven,” he said without looking up.
Aurora flipped to the next slide.
It was her analysis on client risk tiers—data she’d pulled the night before to improve a pitch to their high-value investor.
Damian turned to the table. “This projection was updated by my assistant. Miss Bennett. The projections on group B are more accurate than the outdated models we’ve been relying on.”
Aurora froze. He’s crediting me… in front of everyone?
The CFO, Noah Sinclair, arched a brow. “You trust your assistant to adjust major financial forecasts?”
Damian didn’t blink. “She’s proven useful.”
Noah smiled at Aurora, a slow, calculating grin. “Maybe I’ll steal her.”
“You won’t,” Damian said flatly.
Laughter buzzed around the room, but Aurora’s chest tightened.
The attention. The praise. The eyes.
It was too much.
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4:00 p.m. – Back at Her Desk
When she returned from a file run, her entire workspace was different.
Her computer monitor was off. Her files rearranged. Sticky notes missing. Something… shifted.
Aurora turned everything back on, alarm bells ringing.
When the desktop loaded, her files were scrambled. Folders renamed. Two documents missing.
She gasped. “No, no, no—where’s the Anderson file?”
Panic gripped her. It was one of the reports she’d worked on herself. Customized. Personalized. Now gone.
Her email pinged. A new message.
> From: Unknown Subject: Oops Maybe you’re not as smart as Damian thinks.
Aurora’s hands shook.
She stood, walked straight to Damian’s door, and knocked harder than usual.
“Come in.”
She entered, closed the door behind her.
Damian looked up. His gaze landed on her pale face, and he stood immediately. “What happened?”
“My files were tampered with. Someone touched my desk while I was away. The Anderson report is gone, and I received a threatening email.”
He stared at her. “Let me see it.”
She handed him her phone. He read it, jaw tightening.
“This wasn’t random,” he said. “Someone’s trying to scare you.”
“No kidding,” she whispered.
“I’ll have IT track the sender. In the meantime, I want you off this floor.”
“What?”
“Go to the operations suite downstairs. Take your work there for the rest of the day. Tell no one.”
She hesitated. “Damian, I can handle this—”
“I’m not questioning your strength,” he said quietly. “I’m protecting you.”
Their eyes locked.
“Please,” he said. “Trust me on this.”
She nodded.
---
4:20 p.m. – Operations Suite
Aurora sat in a quiet corner of the lower floor, flanked by rows of humming machines and indifferent coworkers. No one paid her any attention here. It was strangely… peaceful.
Except her heart was still thundering.
She opened her laptop. Refocused. She started rewriting the Anderson report from memory. As she worked, her mind kept going back to one thing: Clara.
Clara had motive. Access. Pride. And she clearly saw Aurora as a threat.
Was it really that simple?
Could Clara be behind the voice call, the box, the sabotage?
Or is someone else pulling strings?
Her fingers paused on the keys.
Something about all of this felt too well-orchestrated.
---
7:15 p.m. – Back on Executive Floor
She waited until after everyone had gone home. Then, cautiously, she returned upstairs.
Damian’s office light was still on.
She knocked.
“Come in.”
He looked up. His jacket was off again. His sleeves rolled. Hair slightly tousled like he’d run a frustrated hand through it.
“You’re supposed to be downstairs,” he said.
“I finished the report. And I hate hiding.”
He sighed. “You’re brave. But reckless.”
“Look who’s talking.”
That made him smile.
He walked over to the table and handed her a USB drive. “We recovered the original file. IT traced the breach to a device that accessed your system between 1:00 and 1:03 p.m.”
“That’s when I went to the archive room.”
“Exactly.” His eyes met hers. “The signal came from an employee ID. One that’s been used before… to bypass my security protocols.”
“Who?”
He handed her a paper with the name.
Aurora read it.
Her jaw dropped. “No…”
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To Be Continued…
📌 In Episode 6: The name on the list leads to someone unexpected. Clara stirs the media with a shocking move. And Aurora faces a test that might push her—and Damian—over the edge.
- Writer
