The email arrived at 9:14 on a Monday morning. It went to all two thousand people at Lakeshore Grocers' head office in Chicago.

From: Linda Prescott, CEO

Subject: Congratulations to Trevor Banks

Team, I'm delighted to share that Trevor Banks has been promoted to Director of Strategy, pending board approval. Trevor's brilliant report on our rural stores will be presented to the board next Thursday. It could save thirty stores and forty million dollars a year. Please join me in congratulating him!

Attached was a picture of the report's front cover.

Why Our Rural Stores Are Losing Money – And How to Fix It.

Prepared by Trevor Banks, Senior Analyst.

I read it at my desk at the back of the strategy floor, next to the photocopier.

Then I read it again.

I knew every word of that report. Every chart. Every number. Every footnote.

I knew them because I'd written them.

All of them.

My name is Abby Turner. I was twenty-one years old, and I was a summer intern.

Across the office, people were already crowding around Trevor's desk, shaking his hand. Someone popped a bottle of sparkling cider.

Trevor looked over their heads. Straight at me.

And he smiled.