The Extorted Promotion

Valerie stared at the man scrambling in front of her. She cut through the stifling, awkward atmosphere, her voice sharp and unrelenting. "If you have something to say, just spit it out. I have zero desire to keep playing along with this pathetic charade."

Dominic froze in his seat. The brief, suffocating flash of guilt he felt over nearly sending her into fatal anaphylactic shock vanished into th