The Group Chat Without Me That Decided Everything Chapter 09

The Group Chat Without Me That Decided Everything Chapter 09

After dinner, rain suddenly came pouring down.

Lauren held an umbrella over me and escorted me into the car

Just as we were about to pull away, someone rushed in front of the hood and spread his arms to block us.

Ethan.

He didn’t even have an umbrella. Rain soaked him through, plastering his suit to his body. He looked pathetic.

The driver hit the brakes and turned to me.

“Ms. Bennett, should I call the police?”

I looked through the window at the man I’d loved for ten years.

He shivered in the rain, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the car window as though it held his last hope.

“No.”

I opened the door, raised a black umbrella, and stepped out.

Joy flared in Ethan’s eyes when he saw me get out.

He stumbled toward me and tried to hug me.

“Cee, I know you still care. You got out of the car, didn’t you? You still can’t bear to see me like this, can you?”

I took a step back, leaving his hands empty.

“Ethan, stepping in front of a car is dangerous. If the driver hadn’t stopped in time, you’d be in the hospital,”

He shook his head desperately, rain running down his face.

“I’m not afraid of dying. I’m afraid you’re really done with me. Cee, I’ve regretted it every day for three years. I regret not coming to get you that day in Miami. I regret always putting Anna

first…”

His legs suddenly buckled, and he fell onto his hands and knees in the muddy water.

“I’m begging you, give me one chance. If you come back, I’ll do anything you ask. I’ll make Anna leave. I’ll never see her again!”

Passing headlights occasionally caught him on all fours in the rain, making the scene almost

theatrical.

I looked down at him.

Deep down, I felt nothing at all.

Once I was truly over him, the whole scene looked like a ridiculous performance.

“You’re begging the wrong person.”

My voice was frighteningly calm.

“I’m not going back to you. I came back to buy your biggest competitor.”

Ethan jerked his head up in shock.

“What?”

“In other words, I’m going to personally drive that rotten company of yours out of this

industry.”

I took a folding umbrella from my bag and tossed it by his feet.

>> and t

It was the one he’d bought for Anna on our last day in Miami three years earlier, then casually

handed to me to carry.

I’d never thrown it away. Back then, it had seemed like proof that I was the third wheel in my

own relationship.

“Here’s your umbrella. Stay away from me. You disgust me.”

I turned and opened the car door without another glance at him.

The car pulled smoothly away.

In the rearview mirror, Ethan crouched in the rain, clutching that folding umbrella and

sobbing uncontrollably.

The next day, two unwelcome visitors arrived at my office.

Nathan and Lucas.

They carried a painfully familiar cake box.

“Cee…”

Nathan stood awkwardly in front of my desk and set the box down.

“I remembered how much you love the pecan cake from this bakery. I stood in line for two

hours to get it.”

Lucas came closer too, his voice eager to please.

“Yeah. Whenever you were upset, one bite of this cake always cheered you up. We were wrong

to neglect you. We’ll make it up to you and then some. Okay?”

From my leather desk chair, I looked at the pecan cake and couldn’t help laughing.

“Have you really forgotten, or are you playing dumb?”

I stood and threw the cake, box and all, straight into the trash can beside me.

It landed with a dull thud.

Both of them flinched.

“I told you a long time ago that I don’t like pecans. Anna does. You forced me to eat them, and I ended up in the hospital with acute gastritis.”

I planted both hands on the desk, my sharp gaze sweeping over their stunned faces.

“Make it up to me? With what? That wreck of a company that’s about to go bankrupt? Or your cheap, condescending charity?”

“Get out, Don’t get my carpet dirty.”

The final moves against their company came together much faster than I’d expected.

Two weeks later.

LN Group’s North American division formally announced that it had acquired full ownership of

Northstar Design, Ethan’s biggest competitor.

At the same time, I sued Ethan’s company on Northstar’s behalf for patent infringement and

copyright infringement involving Northstar’s designs

In court, the original design drafts and timelines left no room for doubt.

Ethan’s attorneys lost ground at every turn.

On the witness stand, Anna, the lead designer, wept pitifully and tried to pin the blame on the

interns under her.

“I didn’t… I really didn’t know that drawing was a discarded Northstar draft. They gave it to me

to use…”

I sat in the front row of the gallery, watching the farce without sympathy.

In the end, the court ruled against Ethan’s company and ordered it to pay enormous damages.

When the judgment was announced, Ethan slumped in his seat at the defense table, as if ounce of strength had left him.

The company he’d spent ten years building was finished

every

Nathan and Lucas had signed joint and several personal guarantees for the company. The court

seized all their homes and cars.

That afternoon, I stepped out of the courthouse.

The four of them blocked my path.

The five of us stood together again, three years after I’d left.

Our positions, though, couldn’t have been more different.

“Claire Bennett, are you happy now?”

Nathan’s eyes were bloodshot, his expression feral.