The Group Chat That Shipped Them, The Application I Sent Chapter 05

The Group Chat That Shipped Them, The Application I Sent Chapter 05

Ethan stiffened, though he quickly forced himself to look composed.

“How could that be? I only suspended her for seven days. I never told her to quit.”

“Clara was the one who submitted her resignation.” Brenda paused for a moment before adding, “Mr. Sterling, you really have been too hard on Clara.

“Everyone who joined around the same time as her has either been promoted to team lead or moved up to project manager. Clara is the only one who has stayed exactly where she was. No one wants to spend their entire career stuck in the same place.”

Ethan’s palms grew sweaty.

Could he really have been too hard on Clara?

He had only been trying to avoid any appearance of favoritism. He had been afraid that if their relationship ever became public, people would accuse Clara of sleeping her way up the corporate ladder. That was why he had rejected her promotion requests year after year.

He had told himself he was giving her more time to prove herself.

But maybe he had only been ignoring how she felt.

Ethan kept his expression calm, but irritation began to simmer beneath the surface.

No matter what, Clara shouldn’t have quit without even telling him.

“When did she submit her resignation?”

Brenda hesitated, then checked the records on her phone.

“The night of the company party.

Ethan’s thoughts immediately went back to the party a few days earlier.

He remembered how strangely Clara had acted that night.

Usually, even a tiny cut was enough to make Clara blow up his phone with messages. But after she burned herself at the party, she had barely said a word. She had treated the injury herself and waited alone until two or three in the morning before finally taking a cab home.

Then there was the matching outfit he had given Sienna, the one Clara had bought for the two of them.

Clara hadn’t reacted at all.

And on the day he suspended her, she had taken off her ring.

Something he couldn’t quite grasp flashed through Ethan’s mind.

For the first time, an inexplicable sense of panic settled in his chest.

He hurried over to Clara’s desk.

It was completely empty.

Several coworkers assumed Ethan had come looking for Sienna.

They nudged her playfully and started teasing.

“Mr. Sterling’s here to see Sienna!”

Sienna forced a smile.

She knew exactly what Ethan’s relationship with Clara was, but after months of being showered with attention and flattery from her coworkers, she had slowly started believing the fantasy herself.

“Mr. Sterling, what brings you here?”

Ethan didn’t answer.

Instead, he asked urgently, “Where’s the ring?”

His voice was tense.

“The ring that was on this desk. Where is it?”

The coworkers froze at the sight of his panicked expression.

They had never seen Ethan this rattled before.

“That fake ring?”

“Maybe the cleaning staff picked it up.”

“Or it got thrown in the trash.”

One coworker snorted. “Mr. Sterling, why are you looking for the ring belonging to that pathetic Clara Hayes? You know, the woman who had the nerve to think she could get with you?”

Ethan stopped dead.

In the past, whenever someone mocked Clara for having feelings for him, he had always told her to ignore it.

But this time, those words hit him like a knife.

He turned around and looked directly at the employee who had said them.

“Spreading malicious rumors about a coworker is unacceptable. Don’t bother coming in tomorrow.”

The employee stood there in stunned silence.

He had just lost his job over one sentence.

Ethan didn’t wait for anyone else to react. He strode out of the department and went straight to the cleaning

staff.

He found one of the employees and asked urgently, “After Clara Hayes resigned, what happened to her personal belongings? Was there a ring on her desk?”.

The middle-aged cleaning woman thought for several seconds before finally remembering.

“I think I did see a ring on her desk.”

She opened the door to the storage room.

“I was worried someone might come looking for it, so I put it in here. Did you lose something, Mr. Sterling? It’s really dusty in here. Just tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll help you find it.”

Ethan didn’t even hesitate.

Ignoring the layers of dust covering everything inside, he rushed straight into the storage room.