He Gave His Assistant My Promotion, So I Left Him Forever Chapter 02

He Gave His Assistant My Promotion, So I Left Him Forever Chapter 02

He stopped. Sat back down. Looked at me.

I took a breath and held it until my voice felt steady.

“Adrian, I think we should break up…”

His phone cut me off.

The screen lit up. Camille.

He picked up, and I could hear her voice through the speaker, fast and panicked. Something about a crisis at work. She needed him back. Now.

Adrian was already standing.

“Can this wait? I have an emergency at work.”

He was out the door before I could answer.

All I got was his back, again, disappearing through the doorway.

The hurt hit so fast I couldn’t breathe.

But it was work. Work always came first.

So what was I supposed to do? Be mad that he was responsible?

The apartment went quiet. Then my phone buzzed.

An email notification. My acceptance letter for the graduate program in Westhaven. I could leave in three days.

Marrying Adrian had been the first dream I’d ever held onto.

Grad school was the second.

Adrian and I grew up in the same small town. We were the only two kids who got into top universities.

We survived being broke together, held each other up, and promised we’d go to grad school and build a life in Riverton.

But grad school cost money we didn’t have.

Between our combined savings, we could only afford for one of us to go.

I gave up my spot. Went straight to work and put everything I had into getting him through.

He’d held my hand the day I told him. Looked me right in the eyes.

“When I’m done, Elena, I’m coming back for you. We’re getting married.”

“I’ll spend the rest of my life making this up to you. I swear.”

After he graduated, he joined my company.

At first, nothing changed. We were still us.

But he climbed fast. And the higher he got, the further he pushed me away.

He became obsessed with keeping us a secret.

At first it was small. No PDA at the office. Don’t walk in together.

Then it spread. No texts during work hours. No sitting together at lunch. And eventually, even at home, he kept that same professional distance, like he’d forgotten how to turn it off.

Ten years together, and his reputation mattered more than any of it.

My phone lit up. Adrian.

[Remember that chicken noodle soup from the little place near our old apartment?]

Our spot. The tiny restaurant we lived on when we first moved to the city and everything still felt foreign.

We’d been so broke we’d split a single bowl.

Adrian always pretended he wasn’t hungry. He’d push the noodles to my side of the bowl when he thought I wasn’t looking.

Then life got busy, and one day the place was just gone. We never found where they moved.

Something warm flickered in my chest.

We’d lost so much. But what we had in the beginning, that had been real.

I typed back carefully.

[Yeah, I remember. Why?]

[Camille’s been wanting to try soup like that. She can’t find the place though. Do you know where the owner moved?]

My hands stopped over the screen. The warmth I’d felt a second ago went dead.

He must have noticed the silence.

[Forget it. Too late to go looking anyway. I’m heading home.]

I pressed the heel of my palm against my eyes, breathed, and typed.

[Okay. We still need to talk when you get back.]

Half an hour later, I heard the lock turn.

Camille followed right behind him.

He kicked off his shoes like it was any other night.

“Nothing’s open this late, and Camille hasn’t eaten, so I figured I’d try to recreate that chicken noodle soup for her.”