He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 06

He Made Me Schedule Meetings, Then Failed to Book Me Chapter 06

At the sound, Chloe turned around instinctively.

When she saw his dark expression, she looked startled.

“Mr. Carter…”

“Who gave you permission to wear my wife’s clothes?”

“And laugh at my wife in my house with other people?”

The coworker wisely ended the video call.

Chloe’s face fell.

“…”

Ethan pointed at the door. “Get out.”

“And don’t come back to the company tomorrow.”

Chloe froze, certain she’d misheard him.

“…Why?”

Ethan kept his finger pointed at the door.

“Don’t make me say it twice.”

“You have one week to move out of my father-in-law’s house.”

Chloe’s eyes reddened.

“I was only joking around with a coworker.”

“Ethan, I’ve worked for you for five years.”

“For five years, you never shorted me a penny.”

Mason rushed in and wrapped his arms around Chloe’s legs.

“I was the one who invited Aunt Chloe!”

“I want Aunt Chloe to be my mom. I want a new mom instead!”

Mason glared at his father.

“Why didn’t that horrible woman die when she fell down the stairs? Worthless people are parasites. They

should die!”

Mrs. Harper quickly covered Mason’s mouth and carried him away.

He kept struggling and making muffled noises.

Ethan watched him and suddenly remembered me lying silently in the hospital bed.

She had been so quiet, like someone had pulled the life right out of her.

At some point, Chloe left.

When Ethan came back to himself, he was sitting alone on the bed in the primary bedroom.

The house grew quiet. The window was still open.

Wind whipped the curtains around like ghosts.

For the first time, he realized how cold the primary bedroom felt when he was alone in it.

He suddenly wanted to know the last time he’d rested there with me.

He opened his calendar. It was packed with every appointment we’d ever made.

Chloe’s bookings stood out in bright colors.

Mine were pale blue, almost impossible to see.

The calendar history from the past five years was a wall of color.

The occasional blue entry was eventually swallowed by a brighter block.

Whenever Chloe and I booked the same time, her appointment overrode mine, even when the backdoor let

me slip my booking in at the exact second the slot opened.

I hadn’t realized it until this year.

For five years, I’d kept booking him at the exact second, still clinging to hope.

It wasn’t that Ethan had never felt guilty.

But he told himself Chloe’s appointments were always for real work.

I always had time.

Once he was done, he’d have plenty of time to make it up to me.

With shaking hands, he went through every past booking.

On Thanksgiving, I had booked him to come home for dinner.

Chloe had asked to go to a new steakhouse as a reward for her work.

He had chosen her.

That night, I waited for him until midnight. When I heard the door open, I rushed to take his briefcase and ask

if he was tired.

He pulled away from my hand.

He was afraid I’d smell Chloe’s perfume on him and make a scene.

The next morning, I handed him a packed lunch.

It was filled with food Mom had left for us.

He didn’t touch it because Chloe kept urging him to try the company’s diet meal.

He casually gave my lunch to a subordinate.

The subordinate washed the lunchbox and returned it.

He even said my cooking was incredible and thanked Ethan for letting him taste such good food.

Ethan didn’t give it a thought.

On the Fourth of July, I had fought to get three amusement-park tickets.

After Chloe found out, she decided she wanted to go to the amusement park that day too.

Mason’s eyes lit up, and he and Chloe came up with a little act.

They told me important visitors were touring the office that day.

Ethan didn’t object. Either way, he was spending the holiday with his son.

Who he went with didn’t matter.

The day I smashed the frames, Ethan knew I was angry.

He had only bothered to retrieve the gold ring I had handed over to the property manager.

He looked at the Friday night he had originally set aside to make it up to me.

He suddenly realized that five years of hurt couldn’t be soothed in a single evening.

After sitting alone until dawn, Ethan finally received my location from the investigator he had hired.