Unbeknownst to Millie, Addison had just walked out of her office and hearing the expletive fly from the genteel lady whose gray hair was coiffed in a chignon, Addison began to laugh. In one swoosh of spilled coffee, the dam was broken. Addison’s austere exterior, at least when it came to Millie, disappeared, and that morning, the ice maiden and the PA became friends.

They never went on shopping outings or even had lunch at nearby cafés, but within the confines of Kane Holdings, a mutual respect had been born. They worked side-by-side, navigating comfortably through project after project, and as days turned into weeks, Millie found herself liking the woman more and more.

Most assuredly diagnosable as obsessive-compulsive, Addison had a strict regime she followed with every takeover, every land deal, and every investment. On numerous occasions, Millie inwardly sighed at Addison’s constant questions to ensure things were in order, but as time passed, she accepted the woman’s quirks for what they were...scars put there by a father who had berated Addison up until the day he died.

The rumors of Oliver Kane’s hatred for his daughter had been spoken by many employed at Kane, and Millie had heard them all, but it wasn’t until she came to be the woman’s assistant when she saw the damage Oliver had done. Many a night, Millie would go home with Addison on her mind. It seemed such a waste for a beautiful woman who had an intelligence way beyond her years to be locked into a soulless existence that centered on success and only success. It was as if without it, and the company that had been in Addison’s family for centuries, it would have somehow proved her father right...that her birth should never have happened. Luckily, Millie thought Oliver Kane was an arse.

***

As Millie schlepped into her house on Friday night, she debated on whether to walk to her neighborhood church and light a few more candles. The night before she had lit two, the first, like always, had been for Trevor and the second, for Addison. She had prayed for a way out for the woman who had become her friend. Some solution that would enable Addison to keep her birthright, but after spending the day listening to heated arguments between Francesca and Addison, Millie feared her prayers would go unanswered. Exhausted from her week of worry, she sighed and made herself some tea. Deciding a splash of port was also in order, she headed up the stairs with tea in one hand and a small glass of sweet, red wine in the other, knowing that God could hear her prayers, whether they be in a house of worship or at the side of her bed.