Single Dad Missed His Billionaire Boss’s Hints—Until She Yelled, “I Love You, Idiot!”
The Glass Tower and the Honesty of a Father
New Year’s Eve. The office building stood empty, every floor dark except the top. Victoria Hail sat across from the only person who stayed behind with her: Lucas Reed, her secretary of two years.
She had given him signals—hundreds of them, thousands of moments when she could have said it out loud. But he never noticed. The clock ticked closer to midnight. The silence became unbearable.
She slammed her hand on the desk, and the words exploded out of her, the ones she had been holding back for two years.
“I love you, idiot!”
How could a man be so completely blind?
Two years earlier, Lucas Reed walked into the glass tower on Fifth Avenue with a resume that didn’t belong there. He wore a suit he bought at a discount store the week before.
His tie was crooked. He knew it was crooked, but he couldn’t fix it in the elevator because his hands were shaking. The woman at the front desk looked at him like he had wandered into the wrong building.
She told him to wait on the 43rd floor. He waited for an hour and 17 minutes. Victoria Hail’s office took up half the floor. The walls were glass.
The city spread out behind her like something she owned. She sat behind a desk made of black marble and didn’t look up when he entered. Lucas stood in the doorway until she finally raised her eyes.
She studied him the way someone studies a piece of machinery they’re not sure will work. She asked him one question.
“Why do you need this job?”
Lucas didn’t give her the answer he rehearsed. He told her the truth. His wife died three years ago. He had a son who was seven years old.
He needed stability, and he needed it to last. Victoria tilted her head slightly. She asked him if he could start on Monday.
