His Double Standards, My Final Goodbye Chapter 07

His Double Standards, My Final Goodbye Chapter 07

Five days after the old case was reopened, Chloe De Santis reached out to me herself.

She asked me to meet her at the cafe downstairs from the hospital.

“Astrid, do you really have to destroy inc?”

She took off her sunglasses. Her eyes were swollen from crying.

“The Association has suspended my professional certification as an architect pending investigation, and my family put me on leave. Dominic just got called in by the board and senior leadership for pulling out of the project on your behalf.”

I stirred my coffee.

“And?”

“I didn’t steal your design three years ago. An intern sent it to me. I didn’t know someone had already entered it in the competition.”

“Once you found out it was mine, why did you keep using it?”

“The competition was the next day. I had no way out.”

Her voice trembled.

“It was my first real opportunity in the industry. My chance to prove myself to my family. If I’d admitted to plagiarism, my career would’ve been over before it even started.”

“So you destroyed mine instead.”

“But you recovered, didn’t you?”

The words were out before she seemed to hear how they sounded.

After a brief silence, her voice softened.

“Astrid, you already have two awards and your own firm. This is all I have. Can’t you help me just

this once?”

I looked at her.

“So that’s where Dominic learned it. From you.”

Her expression changed.

“What?”

“Because I’m strong, I’m supposed to give things up for you.”

“Because I can get back on my feet, you get to knock me down.”

“Because I can handle things, it doesn’t matter if no one is there while my mother is in surgery.

Chloe tightened her grip on the paper cup.

“But Dominic chose you in the end.”

“You’re his girlfriend. The woman he planned to marry. I’m just an ally.”

“You can walk into his private home whenever you want.”

“That’s because of Cannoli.”

“You can take my name off my own work.”

“That was a business decision.”

“You can pull him away while my mother is in surgery.”

She finally lost her patience.

“He chose to come! I didn’t force him!”

“Exactly.”

I nodded.

“That’s why I didn’t come here to argue about who Dominic loves. I reported criminal misconduct and plagiarism.”

Tears spilled from her eyes.

“What if I apologize publicly?”

“Accept the investigation and whatever disciplinary ruling comes with it. Then we can talk about an apology.”

I stood and left.

When I reached the hospital entrance, Dominic was standing under the awning.

He must have heard our conversation.

Choe hurried after me and grabbed his sleeve.

“Dominic, please talk to her. I can’t lose everything.”

Dominic looked down at her hand.

After several seconds, he pulled his sleeve free.

“You had the evidence drive destroyed, didn’t you?”

Chloe’s face went white.

“No…”

“The person who had custody of the evidence already confessed. The money came from your personal account.”

“I was scared.”

Crying, she reached for him again.

“You said you’d protect me. You approached Astrid to help me in the first place, didn’t you?”

Dominic’s eyes shifted to me.

In that instant, the last of the color drained from his face.

“You heard that?”

I didn’t answer.

He crossed the distance between us quickly.

“Astrid, I didn’t know she destroyed the evidence drive. Back then, she told me all she needed was for you to delay the complaint until the financing round was over.”

“And after that?”

“After that, you said you were dropping it.”

“Because you convinced me to let it go.”

Dominic swallowed.

“That was my fault.”

For the first time in three years, the apology came without an excuse attached.

I opened my umbrella.

Then he asked, almost abruptly, “Do you still want the cat?”

“No.”

“I can rehome Cannoli and remove her access.

“Dominic Vance, you still don’t understand.”

I watched rain bead along the edge of my umbrella.

“I wanted a cat three years ago.”

“I wanted a home with you three years ago too.”

“Something that expired a long time ago doesn’t become mine again just because you remove someone else.”

I stepped into the rain.

Dominic stayed where he was. He didn’t follow.

Chloe was still crying behind me.

But Dominic only lowered his head, pulled out his phone, and deleted every one of her access permissions right in front of her.

A notification flashed across the screen.

“Household Member Chloe De Santis has been permanently removed.”

He stared at the message for a long time.

Then he opened my name.

I’d had access for six days.

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