Six Rigged Reviews for Your Assistant? Congrats, You Lost Your Fiancée Chapter 01

Six Rigged Reviews for Your Assistant? Congrats, You Lost Your Fiancée Chapter 01

My fiancé had promised to get a marriage license and finally set our wedding date if I passed the company’s annual innovation review.

For five straight years, however, I had lost to his executive assistant, Sloane Bennett. Each year, the reward he gave her became more extravagant.

This year’s assignment had been simple.

Nolan Vance had chosen the topic himself, and everyone who reviewed my proposal called it flawless.

“Your ideas were too ambitious, and some of them weren’t practical,” he announced. “Maren, keep working and try again next year.”

Then he personally approved Sloane’s $150,000 performance bonus.

Unlike the previous five years, I did not ask him why.

The night before, I had overheard every word of his conversation with his best friend, Derek Cole.

“You’ve found excuses to postpone the wedding for years,” Derek had said. “Aren’t you afraid Maren will get angry and leave?”

“She loves me too much to walk away,” Nolan replied. “Sloane has been with me through everything.

“When she asked me to wait a few more years before marrying Maren, I couldn’t refuse her.”

If he could not refuse Sloane and hated the thought of disappointing her, I would make the decision easy. I would not marry him.

I called my grandmother.

“Grandma Eleanor, I’m ready to join your company in Seattle.”

Eleanor Ellis sounded so excited that she nearly laughed and cried at once.

“Sweetheart, you’re finally coming home.”

She was right to be surprised.

Nolan and I had started dating in college, and he had proposed on graduation day.

One promise had kept me beside him all these years.

I had waited through spring and winter, then through five more winters, until people quietly began calling me the woman whose fiancé would never set a date.

The wedding Nolan had promised never came.

This time, I would not wait.

“I just miss you too much, Grandma.”

Before the ache in my chest could turn into tears, I ended the call.

—

I lifted my chin, determined not to fall apart at the awards reception.

Someone tapped my shoulder, and a playful voice sounded behind me.

“There you are, Maren. I’m so sorry I beat you again this year.”

Sloane smiled brightly. “Mr. Vance said my proposal was conventional, but it was more practical than yours.

“Thanks for letting me win.”

Nolan stood beside her and casually smoothed her hair.

“You earned it. There’s no reason to thank anyone.”

He picked up her coat. “You’ve wanted to try that new French bistro for months.

“Dinner is my reward to you.”

Their voices faded as they walked away.

My close friend and coworker, Tessa Quinn, glared after them.

“What a jerk. He has kept you waiting for six years.

“How much longer does he expect you to put up with this?”

“And he just walked out with his assistant in front of everyone. Does he care that people might humiliate you?”

I forced a smile and watched them disappear.

Humiliate me?

Except for Tessa, no one at Vance Innovations knew Nolan and I were engaged.

Nolan had said that, as CEO, he had to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.

That rule had allowed him to give all his patience and favoritism to Sloane.

After six years, our coworkers did not laugh at me. They only pitied a talented strategist who never received the recognition she deserved.

“Come on,” I told Tessa. “You’re buying dinner.”

It was nine-thirty when I returned to the condo I had shared with Nolan.

He lounged on the couch as if nothing had happened, with two large takeout bags on the coffee table.

“You’re home late. You always said you wanted to try that French place, so I brought dinner back.

“Now we don’t have to make another trip.”

So this was what he had brought me after every failed review for the past five years.

I had already decided to leave, yet my heart still throbbed.

No woman wanted her fiancé to take another woman to an elegant dinner, then offer her whatever came home afterward.

I drew a slow breath and kept my voice steady.

“You took Sloane out for an expensive dinner and still remembered to bring me what was left. How thoughtful.”

Embarrassment flashed across Nolan’s face before he smiled.

“She didn’t like it and barely touched anything. It’s perfectly good food.”

“We’re doing well now, but that doesn’t mean we should waste money.”

“If she didn’t want it, why would I?”

I cut him off and clenched my fists until my nails bit into my palms.

It was always like this.

In Nolan’s world, his fiancée’s feelings mattered far less than Sloane’s.