“Good night, Joanna,” Millie said, getting to her feet. “By the way, will I see you on Sunday? I’ll bring those books along that we talked about last week.”

“I’ll be here pushing my mop as always,” Joanna said over her shoulder. “That is unless some rich doctor comes along and offers me a better deal.”

***

Over the past forty years, there wasn’t much Millie Barnswell hadn’t seen or done as an employee of Kane Holdings. At the tender age of twenty-one, she had walked over their threshold as a temporary typist, and sitting amongst others like herself, she had done what they had not. She had followed the rules given her. She didn’t chatter or gossip. She didn’t paint her face or chase after the men hoping for a good catch. She did her job, and it paid off. When the other temporary workers left a few months later, Millie was asked to stay on.

After spending a few years in the typing pool she moved into research and development, and working as a junior secretary for the manager of the department, she paid her dues in more ways than one. Shy and reserved, Millie had never met anyone like Virgil Barnswell. Enamored by his good looks and muscled physique, one thing eventually led to another and shortly after she turned thirty, they were married.

Nine months to the day after their wedding their son Trevor was born, and Virgil couldn’t have been prouder; however, before Trevor reached the age of two, he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Unable to accept the limitations of his son, before Trevor’s fourth birthday, Virgil walked out and never came back.

So, with the help of family and friends, Millie raised her son without a father. Wanting to give Trevor everything she could, she began working even harder at Kane in hopes of obtaining a more lucrative position. Skipping lunches and taking breaks only when the need for a bathroom became great, her productivity was second to none, and as Millie had hoped, someone finally noticed...and that someone was Xavier Kane.

At the age of thirty-six, Millie Barnswell became the personal assistant to the president of Kane Holdings, and for the next fifteen years, she worked alongside one of the kindest men she had ever met. When Xavier died, there were not many at his funeral who cried more than Millie. Three years later, Millie attended another funeral after a lung infection took her son away.