Her aloofness was legendary. Within the corporation, she was untouchable. Even senior executives kept a respectful distance when reporting to her.
Yet there she was, leaning into Dominic, intimate and open. From a different angle, it would have looked like they were about to kiss.
I used to think Natalie's rules were absolute laws of nature.
Then Dominic Gilbert arrived, and I realized her rules only applied to me.
I remembered my first month as her assistant. A minor formatting error on a report sequence.
She had looked at me with eyes like shattered glass.
"You might think this is trivial," she had said, her voice devoid of warmth. "But by my side, there is no room for error. If this happens again, draft your resignation letter before you leave."
But when Dominic joined the group and spilled coffee all over a stack of critical financial statements?
She hadn't even frowned.
"Be more careful next time," she had said softly. "Have finance redo it."
Dominic was the definition of a 'princeling'—the son of a major board shareholder. Shoehorned into the company and promoted to Deputy Sales Director in under a year.