I Stressed for Months to Be With Them — They Were Never Planning to Be With Me Chapter 09

I Stressed for Months to Be With Them — They Were Never Planning to Be With Me Chapter 09

After I got home, I gathered every gift Asher had ever given me.

Those things had once carried all the joy and hope of my younger years, but I should’ve returned

them long ago and cut ties completely.

The following day, I officially started my new position at Summit Group.

Shortly after an executive meeting ended, a furious argument erupted outside the conference

room.

A woman in a dress stormed inside and grabbed another employee by the hair.

“You shameless homewrecker! You’ve been throwing yourself at my husband every day. Do you

have any shame at all?”

I frowned and stepped forward, my gaze landing on the disheveled woman.

It was Vanessa.

My assistant hurried to my side and lowered her voice.

“Vanessa’s competent at her job, but she has serious problems with professional boundaries.”

“The entire department has been talking about how close she is to a married coworker. He drives her to and from work almost every day.”

I immediately ordered security to separate the women.

Vanessa’s hair hung messily around her face. When she looked up and recognized me, her face

stiffened with humiliation. I looked at her and said,

“After all these years, you still haven’t changed.”

I turned to my assistant.

“Notify HR. Vanessa and the married coworker involved are both terminated.”

Vanessa’s eyes reddened.

“Claire, I know I was wrong. Please don’t fire me.”

She reached for my hand, but I calmly pulled away. My decision didn’t change.

News of the confrontation quickly spread online and grew into a public workplace scandal.

Even Vanessa’s parents eventually kicked her out.

After one blow after another, she had a complete breakdown. In the end, she jumped from a high-rise and died.

When I heard the news, I only sighed. Every consequence had come from the choices she made herself.

A year later, my fiancé and I got married.

In my wedding gown, I stood near the end of the aisle, greeting our friends and family with a smile.

Then I noticed a lonely figure standing near the entrance.

It was Asher.

He looked at the happiness on my face and swallowed, as if he wanted to say something. In the end,

he chose not to interrupt.

He quietly turned around and left the venue alone.

After the wedding, my career continued to thrive. Two years later, I gave birth to a lovely daughter.

That same year, I finally fulfilled the dream I had carried since my teenage years and held my first

solo exhibition.

After the exhibition ended, my family planned a vacation together.

We booked a rideshare to the airport. When I looked toward the driver’s seat, I paused.

The driver was Asher.

The air inside the car felt stifling. He kept his eyes on the road and didn’t say a word for the entire

ride.

Later, I learned what had happened from a former classmate.

After Asher returned to school, he let his studies fall apart and never applied to graduate school.

When layoffs swept through his field, he was among the first to be let go because he lacked the degree employers wanted.

After struggling to find steady work, he eventually began driving full-time for a rideshare service.

I only nodded when I heard.

All the love, resentment, and pain between us had faded with time. Whether his life turned out well or badly no longer had anything to do with me.

A gentle evening breeze drifted in from the ocean.

Standing on the beach, I watched my husband and our daughter run after the waves, her clear

laughter drifting through the air.

In that moment, happiness felt close, real, and entirely mine.

Everything in the past had faded into the distance.

The life before me was the only thing truly worth holding on to.