We Promised to Wait for Everyone—But No One Waited for Me Chapter 03

We Promised to Wait for Everyone—But No One Waited for Me Chapter 03

On Wednesday, after handing off my last projects, I packed up my personal things.

Then the Creative Director called me into a conference room.

On the big screen was the marketing team’s concept shortlist for the next campaign.

“Delaney, did you submit this outside the company?”

She tossed a folder across the table.

I opened it, and there was a cover I knew better than my own handwriting.

It was the set of design boards I’d stayed up nights to finish last month.

The key visual, the color palette, the layout, all identical.

But the credit line read “Teakwood Studio.”

That was where Josie worked.

“I didn’t submit anything.”

The Director frowned.

“Next month the company is launching this direction. The concepts collided, and Legal is already checking the timelines.”

“Have you given your drafts to anyone?”

Standing in that conference room in the sweltering summer heat, I felt cold all the way through.

That evening, I put the folder on the coffee table.

“Josie, did you submit this?”

Josie was on the couch eating an apple.

She glanced at the folder, and the hand holding the apple stopped.

“Delaney… where did you get this?”

“I asked whether you submitted it.”

“…I did.”

She put the apple down, and her voice went soft at once.

“I just wanted to try. I never thought it would actually get through.”

“Delaney, did I mess up?”

As she said it, her eyes turned red.

Wesley came over with a plate of washed grapes.

He looked at the papers on the table, then at me.

His tone was calmer than I’d expected.

“It’s just one set of design boards. Why are you scaring her?”

“Wesley, this is my company’s campaign. Legal is already investigating.”

“We’re all designers, you think I don’t understand?”

He sat down beside Josie and nudged the grapes toward her.

“Your company is huge. Would a shortlisted draft really affect you?”

Dawson leaned against the wall and added his two cents.

“Right. Delaney, a big company like yours won’t miss one design. Let your cousin share the glory.”

“Share the glory? I spent a month of nights and weekends on that.”

All they’d thought about was whether it would hurt the company.

Not one of them had thought about how, in that moment, all my effort had just been thrown away.

Dawson laughed.

“See, here you go again. Making a federal case out of nothing.”

Miles was the last one home.

He walked in, saw everyone gathered around, saw the papers on the table, and understood everything.

He didn’t look at me. He looked at Josie first.

“Why are you crying? Delaney isn’t going to blame you.”

He hung up his coat unhurriedly and sat down next to me.

“Delaney, don’t hold this against Josie.”

I turned to him.

“You think I’m the one who’s wrong?”

He smiled slightly and shook his head, his voice softening.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m saying there’s no need to make a big thing of it.”

Josie leaned in at just the right moment and tugged my arm, her voice thick with tears.

“Delaney, I’m so sorry. I really didn’t know it would turn out like this.”

“Your drafts were sitting on the desk, and I thought you didn’t want them anymore, so I thought I’d try…”

The more she talked, the more the tears fell.

Wesley frowned at once.

“Look what you did. Did you have to make Josie cry?”

Dawson smoothed it over.

“Okay, okay, we’re family. Let’s not let a small thing hurt us.”

Miles pulled out a tissue and handed it to her.

“Wipe your face. Delaney didn’t mean it that way.”

Everyone was comforting her.

Nobody asked whether I’d been chewed out by the Director.

Nobody cared what those few minutes in that conference room had felt like.

Nobody had ever thought about how I’d gotten through that grueling month.

I was suddenly so tired.

So tired I didn’t even have the strength to demand an answer.