It was all arranged. The party would take place after the morning meeting when Nick got his promotion as Senior Vice President of Sales. She ordered the cake and it was delivered discretely at the back door where she requested. She smiled brightly as she looked at the cake: it was a vanilla cake with Bailey's filling. The icing was blue with white letters that said CONGRATULATIONS NICK! She arranged coffee and soda for all the employees to drink. She decorated the break room.

It was an exciting day that she could barely sit still. While Caylee sat at her desk with her headset, typing at her computer and taking messages for Harken. She often would respond the same answer to the caller in the same tired old line:

"David Harken's office. No, I'm sorry. Mr. Harken isn't in right now. I will be glad to take a message. Thank you. Have a lovely day."

Harken didn't want anybody bothering him. He only wanted messages taken and would call back clients when he felt like it. Caylee did most of the work: she read the message, set up times to meet with clients for lunch or conference calls, etc. Then she would return the calls to the clients and arrange the meetings. Caylee often attended some business meetings with Harken, just sitting there silently and taking notes or ordering meals or serve coffee if they decided to eat in the office. Most of the time, she was chained to the desk, not allowed to take any bathroom or lunch breaks UNLESS Harken said so. She had learned early on not to drink too many liquids nor eat too much since that increased the urge to go to the bathroom. If the need came, she had to keep something to eat in her desk or drink, ingesting as little as possible.

While sitting at her desk, she looked at Nick who was hunched over paperwork. With a dreamy sigh, she thought he looked really handsome in his blue shirt and dark tie. There was a smile of confidence and a gleam of happiness because today was his promotion. Upon realizing he too was looking straight at her, she blushed and looked down, pretending to work on her Ipad and looking like the professional little secretary. Nick shook his head. She reminded her of Moneypenny-except very shy.

All the countless man hours, the relentless ass kissing, ball busting torment from an asshole boss. The payout was about to make his work worthwhile. Nick's knee bounced anxiously behind his desk, trying hard not to smirk too knowingly because hell he wanted to play out the surprise. As the scene played out in his mind, he paused catching the eye glued to him. Miss Caylee Harken, despite the relationship she got the same shit as the rest of them but he couldn't imagine that followed them home at night. He watched the secretary stride over with papers in her arms, hugging them to her gray sweater. She handed him the memo about today's meeting.

"Hi, Nick," she said.

His gaze rose from his paperwork to the woman extending him a note. He quickly skimmed the note and offered her his usual polite smile. Honestly, he couldn't see where beautiful woman like Miss Caylee got this insecure shyness. That could be a product of his boss but there was no way to tell. Pausing slightly to fan his hand over his mouth, posing himself like he was simply holding his head up. It was an attempt to deter the smell of aged bourbon that he surely knew was on his breath.

"Thank you, Caylee," he said through his fingers, his brows raised to make up for the smile unseen behind his hand. His lips parted again, this time to ask for her to wish him luck when Mr. Harken opened his office door.

"Hendricks, a moment," Harken boomed, causing the rest of the room to flinch.

Caylee flinched at the sound of Harken's voice. She dropped some papers clumsily. Panicking, she scrambled to pick them up with trembling hands. All Harken wanted was perfection: his clothes ironed, folded and washed a certain way, his papers stacked neatly, everything perfect. God forbid that he should see the disorder out here. He'd be barking at her what a disgrace she was. Her face flushed as she started picking them up.

Upon hearing his name called, Nick pushed himself upright, breaking his contact with Caylee and sweeping his face of any knowing indication of his promotion. He crossed promptly, disappearing into the office with an almost bound in his step. He glanced at Caylee as she frantically picked up the papers.

"Caylee!" barked Harken. "Go set up the conference room for the meeting this morning! And pick up those papers!"

"Yes, sir," she replied with a nod. "I'm sorry, sir. It was an acci..."

"I don't want to hear excuses," he interrupted. "Just do it."

She nodded, picking up the papers and finished passing out the memos to the rest of the staff. Then made a beeline to the conference room to set it up. Walking quickly, she set up the chairs and tables, turning the big screen TVs on, putting pens, paper and clipboards, sighing and rolling her eyes. This was stupid! He made her do the most idiotic jobs whenever he thought she was doing nothing. Today, he yelled at her this morning because his pants didn't have a crease and again for his shirts not being ironed right. She cursed under her breath as she ironed his clothes. In an act of defiance, she spit on his shirt and ironed it in, smiling evilly. Next time, she'll fill the iron with pee and iron it into his shirt so he'll smell like piss. That'll teach that prick!

About fifteen minutes passed before Nick reappeared, his features rather flushed. He appeared perturbed, clearing his throat as he returned to his desk. The harsh burn of the bourbon was enough to make his eyes water. Pre-promotion celebration? Yeah that's it. He'll take an early morning drink to that. Hell he began drumming his pen on his desk in wait for Harken to come make the announcement.

The meeting was at 10:00 and everybody started gathering into the conference room, talking among themselves. They greeted Caylee with a hello and started sitting at the tables. She asked if they wanted coffee or anything to drink, which she would bring them if they asked. Soon, Nick came in, sitting up front, looking very excited.

"Hi, Caylee," he said, smiling.

"Hello Nick. Coffee?"

"No, thank you."

"Good luck today."

"Thank you."

It was already 10:15 and already Harken was late for the meeting. Nick was whispering to a coworker about how he would get on his ass about being a minute late, yet he was late for fifteen.

"You were two minutes late, Nick," said Harken.

"Morning," Nick said suddenly, embarrassed.

"I didn't think I had to punch a clock with you."

"I uh..."

"It's alright. I'll attribute this to your drinking problem."

"I don't have a..." Nick protested, turning red slightly from embarrassment.

"Nick, please, we're in the middle of a meeting."

Nick bit his tongue, swallowing his anger. God! Harken was an TOTAL FUCKING ASSHOLE! Already he had made him look like a damn fool. He hated when he had to endure the humiliation.

"Morning everyone!" Harken began. "So, I have finally decided who I want to be our senior vice president of sales. He's right here in this room."

The room was dead silent and Nick looked on edge, excited. Caylee gave him a smile.

"It's me."

Caylee felt her heart sink when she heard this. She saw Nick's face fall and could see the shock and surprise. What?!

"What did he say?" whispered Nick.

His face reddened slightly, the rising rage burning in his eyes, his jaw tightening with a mixture of bitter resentment.

"I've decided to absorb the responsibilities of the Senior VP into my career," Harken continued. "I mean if you want to do something right, you got to do it yourself. So, I'm going to be breaking through the wall of what would've been the Senior VP's office and make one huge enormous office. I will only be taking 80% of the additional salary that I'm entitled to..."

Caylee didn't hear the rest of the meeting because she heard silence and Harken's lips spoke but nothing came out. She could only hear was her brain screaming OMG! OMG! She could see herself pushing Harken out of the window and being impaled on his parking sign while the other coworkers cheered happily. Setting him on fire. Strangling him with his awful yellow tie that she would iron every day.

"And that is self-sacrifice people. Learn from it! Meeting adjourned," Harken concluded.

Everybody got up and left and he left the room. She followed Harken around, holding an Ipad, while he asked her questions about messages, etc.

"Mr. Harken," said Nick. "Can I speak to you for a moment?"

"Go back to your desk," he told Caylee.

With a silent nod, Caylee went to her desk to retrieve her headset. Sighing she went to the break room, looking at all the decorations and drinks she had ordered and done. She couldn't say she wasn't surprised that Harken could do this. It was typical of him: making Nick jump through hoops with the promise of giving him a promotion. Of all the cruelest things he had done, this one took the cake. He knew damn well that Nick deserved that promotion only to take it for himself. That FUCKING ASSHOLE! With a frown, she looked at the expensive cake. She might as well throw away the cake since it was all for nothing.

"What's all this?" asked Harken, looking around at the break room.

Caylee was startled when she heard Harken's voice behind her. Her face drained and then flushed when she whirled around at the sound of his voice. Her body was trembling.

"It was supposed to be a surprise for Nick," she explained softly. "For his promotion."

The man looked around, quite impressed at how well decorated the room was. Glancing at the cake, there was a sadistic glitter in his eyes.

"Well, I guess you'll have to cut out the Nick part of it," he said, smugly.

Taking a giant carving knife, he stabbed the cake and cut out Nick's name. Then he threw it in the trash on top of the coffee grinds, leaving an ugly gaping hole in the cake. Everything Harken touched left a trail of destruction in his wake. Caylee's eyes widened as she looked at the ruined cake, full of rage, disgust and hate right now that all of it came to a boiling point that she didn't know what happened...

"I can't believe you did that!" she blurted out.

"Excuse me?" he said.

"You promised Nick for months that you were giving him that promotion. You lied to him!"

"I didn't lie to Nick," he assured falsely. "I'm motivating him. He's a valuable member of the team and he is needed where he belongs. Plus, I'm going to be the one doing all the extra work."

The blonde scowled at her boss. She didn't know what words were coming out and if she could control her anger.

"You knew he deserved that promotion," she continued; her face was red and her fists were clenched. "But you are so selfish that you can't give someone as hard working and dedicated as Nick something he deserves. He has given up his entire personal life. I haven't seen him take a vacation or a sick day in his life..."

Harken held up an open hand as if to silence the young woman. Next, he got in her face. Caylee could see a vein in his forehead throbbing; a sure sign that he was going to explode, but he remained calm. His cold, soulless brown eyes bored into her baby blues. It made Caylee flinch with fear.

"Let me tell you something, you stupid little c*&t," Harken whispered in a smoldering voice. "You will never speak to me like that. Not as long as you live in my house and work in my office. You may be my daughter, but you're nothing. You're my bitch. I own you. You will be silent and obedient. I can destroy you any time I want. Don't think you have free will to say what you want because you don't. The next time you speak to me like that again, you will find yourself with no job or home. Do we have an understanding?"

Caylee swallowed and trembled, nodding silently and submissively.

"Now, get back to your desk and say nothing to me for the rest of the day unless it is important."

She obeyed and went back to her desk. She could feel tears starting to seep through the cracks of her lower eyelid, holding them back with every ounce of effort. Harken was not a man to fuck with since he took no prisoners. He left everyone shaking in their shoes, unable to defend themselves.

She remembered the time he purposely broke her arm because he felt like it. When Rhonda asked what had happened, he lied saying she fell down the steps and stared back at her with those soulless eyes and a finger to his lips, telling her to not speak a word to her stepmother. She would tremble, knowing to keep her mouth shut.

It was true. Harken could destroy her...the only way to survive was to lay down like a good dog and take it...