Chapter 3 - The Unnoticed Titan
Dinner proceeded with the elegance of a funeral. The conversation was dominated by Robert’s loud boasts about his company’s upcoming expansion and his "strategic" need for a partner in the military. It was nauseatingly transparent. Nathan Reed, meanwhile, remained stoic. He didn't participate in the gossip, nor did he join in the laughter when Robert made jokes about "office-dwelling pencil pushers" in the armed forces.
Evelyn watched him from the corner of her eye. She knew him. She had sat across the table from him in a secure hearing room six months ago, demanding accountability for a unit's budget mismanagement. She knew the scars on his knuckles and the weight of the medals he rarely talked about. He was a man of steel, and he was currently witnessing the systematic dismantling of a person’s dignity.
“Evelyn, why don't you tell Nathan about your exciting life of clerical work?” Caroline teased, leaning back in her chair with a predatory glint in her eyes. “Tell him how the printer always runs out of ink.”
May you like
Robert chuckled. “She’s been at it for fifteen years, Nathan. You’d think she would have found a promotion by now, right? But some people are just meant to be background characters.”
Evelyn felt a spark of something cold and sharp in her chest. For years, she had allowed this, choosing to keep her life a fortress of solitude to protect the secrecy of her work. But looking at Nathan, and then looking at the smug, entitled faces of her family, she realized the cost of her silence. She hadn't just been protecting secrets; she had been letting them define her.
