Billionaire’s Regret: The One He Lost

The line went dead silent. Maxine Mason waited on pins and needles until footsteps drew near, followed by a crisp female voice: "Mr. Payne’s at lunch right now and can’t take your call. Can I help you with anything?"

Thud. Her heart plummeted straight to her stomach.

A new executive assistant? This fast? How had she missed the news entirely?

"Hello? Are you still on the line?" The woman’s voice held a faint edge of suspicion.

"It’s fine, sorry to bother you," Maxine hung up fast and stared blankly at her desk.

Eileen strolled in at some point, a sarcastic scoff rolling off her tongue. "Still trying to pull the sympathy card with Mr. Payne? His new assistant studied in Germany. She gets along with him way better than you ever did."

Maxine’s brow furrowed slightly, but she ignored the jab and calmly cleared off her desk. She pulled out her coffee-stained clothes and headed off to find the cleaning lady.

The cleaner eyed Maxine with sympathy, taking in her disheveled state, then hesitantly offered her a brand-new cleaning uniform. "You sure you wanna wear this? I can run out and grab you a new skirt. Just wait here for me."

"No need, I’ll change and pick one up myself," Maxine didn’t want to put the cleaner out or get her dragged into this mess. She thanked her and headed for the shared employee lounge to change.

Thankfully, Payne Corp’s facilities were top of the line—the lounge restroom was fully stocked and well-kept.

Ten minutes later, Maxine stepped out in the cleaning uniform. It was a little too big, hanging loose off her frame, so she tied a double knot at the waist to cinch it.

She adjusted the outfit until it looked at least halfway presentable, then wrapped her hand around the door handle to leave. It wouldn’t budge.

Wait, what?

Maxine pressed down on the handle again, harder this time.

Clink. A rattle of chain.

Someone had locked her in from the outside!

She threw her weight against the door, but it didn’t move an inch. She went to scream for help, then suddenly remembered—she’d left her phone with the cleaning lady.

There was a critical meeting at 2:30. Yeah, she wasn’t Braxton’s right hand anymore, but she was still required to be there as part of the secretarial team.

Maxine grabbed a chair and slammed it against the lock. The door only vibrated a little, no damage done.

For the first time ever, she thought: too much quality really is a problem.

Busting down the door was out of the question, so Maxine scanned the room for another way out, her gaze landing on the lounge window. She peeked out. A twenty-story drop. No way in hell she was trying that.

As the minutes ticked by faster and faster, Maxine was stuck in that small room, helpless. Right when she was about to give up, she heard hurried footsteps sprinting down the hallway.

Maxine yelled at the top of her lungs: "Is anyone out there? Please, open the door!"

A voice called back: "Maxine? That you in there?"

"Yes! It’s me!" Maxine cried, tears springing to her eyes as she pressed herself to the crack of the door, begging. "Is that you, Ma’am? Please unlock this. I don’t know who locked me in here."

"I don’t have a key for this lock, I’ll go get tools," the cleaning lady said, eyeing the palm-sized lock before turning to leave.

A flicker of urgency crossed Maxine’s face, and she stopped her. "Ma’am, go to the 22nd floor, room B2203. Tell them I’m stuck in the 20th floor lounge."

The 22nd floor was where the meeting was being held.

The cleaner, who knew the building like the back of her hand, nodded and hurried off.

Minutes later, the sound of rushed, overlapping footsteps approached. The chain clattered, the door swung open, and a tall woman stood in the frame, with a smug-looking Eileen trailing right behind her.

"Maxine, the executives are already starting the meeting. Why are you still holed up here?" the tall woman demanded.

Maxine sized her up silently. This had to be the new executive assistant.

When Maxine didn’t answer, the woman assumed she had no clue who she was. She raked Maxine from head to toe, smirked at the cleaning uniform, and introduced herself with arrogance. "I’m Holly Quinn, Mr. Payne’s executive assistant."

"Nice to meet you, Holly," Maxine greeted politely, gratitude in her tone. "Thanks for getting me out. I just need to go change my clothes."

Holly stepped forward smoothly, blocking her path. "No time. Do you want to embarrass Mr. Payne in front of the board?"

With all the executives in there—several of whom already had it out for Braxton—this meeting couldn’t afford any mistakes.

Eileen chimed in, mocking. "Yeah, wearing that raggedy cleaning uniform? That’s how you embarrass him."

Hearing that, the cleaning lady bowed her head in shame.

Maxine’s eyebrow lifted. She looked straight at Holly. "Give me five minutes."

She turned back inside, grabbed a pocket knife, and started altering the uniform against the reflection of the glass. The top turned into a sleek off-the-shoulder blouse, the mismatched buttons looking like an intentional, trendy touch. The pants became high-slit casual trousers, the gathered waistband tucked neatly under the blouse to cinch her figure.

At a glance, it looked like a one-of-a-kind custom business fit, and it cleverly hid her plain flat shoes.

She checked herself over in the mirror, then grabbed a sleek pen from her pocket and twisted her hair up into a neat, effortless bun.

When Maxine reappeared in the doorway, the whole transformation had taken exactly five minutes.

Ignoring the shocked gape on Eileen’s face, Maxine nodded at Holly. "Let’s go. We don’t want to keep Mr. Payne waiting." She turned to reassure the cleaning lady. "I’ll pay you back for the uniform. Thank you so much, Ma’am."

The cleaning lady waved her off, a sheepish smile tugging at her lips.

Curiosity flickered in Holly’s eyes, but her face stayed neutral.

The group walked back to the meeting room, and every head turned their way instantly. From across the room, Braxton Payne’s gaze locked straight on Maxine, making her feel bare—like he could see right through every trick she’d pulled.

One of the executives, looking to stir up trouble, called her out: "Mr. Payne’s assistant held up the whole meeting, made all of us wait."

Holly immediately put on a conciliatory smile. "It was just a little accident. I hope you can understand, Mr. Davis."

In a split second no one else caught, Braxton’s brow furrowed then smoothed. Why were his people bending over backwards to appease the board like that?

Maxine caught that fleeting expression and knew exactly what to do. She looked at Mr. Davis with cool poise, and explained: "I was grabbing coffee for the meeting, got stained, and accidentally locked myself in while changing. I hope Mr. Davis doesn’t hold it against a lowly assistant."

It was a quiet jab at how petty he was being for calling her out.

Holly instinctively glanced at Braxton, ready to jump in and apologize, but froze when she saw his face.

Was that… a smile on Mr. Payne’s lips?

Mr. Davis’s lip twitched, no comeback coming to mind, and he huffed and turned away.

The meeting got underway properly. Holly took Maxine’s old spot running the presentation, but halfway through, the screen suddenly went black. The board members exchanged confused glances.

Braxton’s eyes snapped straight to Holly, his calm gaze heavy with unspoken pressure. "What’s going on?"

Holly kept her face neutral, but her hands were panicking, fumbling all over the laptop.

As precious seconds ticked away, the room stayed lit only by the dim projector glow, highlighting how flustered Holly was getting.

Maxine took a deep breath, stepped up to the laptop, and fixed the issue in two seconds flat. "This power switch is easy to bump by accident. No worries."

With the problem sorted, she strolled casually back to her seat.

The meeting continued without another hitch.

Holding the remote again, Holly glanced over at Maxine, her eyes holding a new, unreadable depth.