After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 03

After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 03 The Bracelet
I fought down the trembling in my chest and went to the kitchen for a glass of water.
My phone lit up as messages poured into the group chat.
It was the gossip chat I’d started with a few coworkers, our outlet for venting about all the ridiculous drama at work.
The one posting was a coworker who’d started the same week I did.
“Okay, huge news. You have to see what Chloe just posted.”
The moment I read Chloe’s name, my chest went tight.
A second later, she dropped in a screenshot of Chloe’s Instagram.
Chloe had posted a bracelet with the price tag still attached: $100,000.
And her caption made it so much worse.
“Thank you to my boss, my sweet Grayson, for buying me this bracelet.”
Something in me went completely cold.
Barring some huge coincidence, the boss and the “sweetheart” in that caption could only be Grayson.
The chat was already blowing up.
“Holy crap, Grayson actually bought Chloe a 100-thousand-dollar bracelet.”
“There’s no way those two aren’t hooking up. You could not convince me otherwise.”
“Right? Okay, I seriously can’t hold this in anymore, so I’ll just share it. Yesterday at Silverpoint Mall, I saw Grayson and Chloe at the movies together, and the two of them were so into it I could hear them making out from two rows back.”
“I’m telling you, those two are absolutely dating in secret. Otherwise why would Grayson rip into Ivy that hard over Chloe? Ivy’s supposed to be his right hand.”
I read the messages until my eyes burned red.
Making out at the Silverpoint theater? But Grayson told me he was off meeting a client yesterday.
The ache in my chest went hollow and cold.
My whole body started to shake.
With trembling fingers I opened my banking app, and when I saw that our joint savings account had only 998 dollars left, the weight of it crushed me. I sank to the floor and sobbed out loud.
Grayson and I had opened that account last year, each of us putting money in every month as a honeymoon fund for when we got married.
And now Grayson had drained it to buy Chloe a 100-thousand-dollar bracelet.
My chest twisted, and then Grayson, who had never once backed down first, opened the bedroom door himself.
For a second I let myself believe he’d heard me crying and come out to comfort me.
Instead, his voice came out sharp and impatient.
“Are you seriously doing this? Screaming your head off in the middle of the night.”
I looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears.
“You took the money from our joint savings and bought Chloe a bracelet?”
Grayson heard the accusation without a flicker of panic on his face.
“You slapped Chloe at the office and she cried the entire day. What’s wrong with buying her a bracelet to smooth things over?”
I lifted my tear-streaked face.
“She’s a lowly intern. Why should I be the one apologizing to her, let alone with a 100-thousand-dollar bracelet? Does she even deserve that? And if you want to buy Chloe gifts, what gives you the right to spend from our joint account? Half of that money is mine.”
My voice came out broken and hoarse.
Grayson only gave a thin, mocking smile.
“A lowly intern? It’s jaded office lifers like you who’ve made this place so miserable to work in. Let me be clear. Chloe is my buddy’s little sister, and as long as I’m looking out for her, no one gets to push her around.
“And I’m not just giving her a bracelet to apologize. I want you standing in front of the whole office tomorrow to apologize to Chloe yourself. Otherwise, you’re fired.”
My eyes went wide. I never imagined Grayson would go this far for Chloe.
“On what grounds could you fire me? I’ve given everything to this company for years, ranked top three in performance every single one of them. You don’t have the right.”
Grayson let out another mocking little laugh.
“How naive. I’m your boss. I fire whoever I want. You’ve got until the end of tonight to think it over, and if you won’t apologize to Chloe in front of everyone, HR sends you your termination email tomorrow.
“And take a good, hard look at yourself while you’re at it. Look at the impossible mess you’ve turned into.”
With that, Grayson yanked on his shoes, slammed the door, and walked out of the apartment.
And I finally broke, sobbing until I couldn’t hold it in.
Just when the pain felt like it might kill me all over again, I saw Chloe’s newest post.
The photo showed her gripping someone’s tie, her lips pressed to his jaw.
There was no caption this time.
Even so, one look was all it took to recognize Grayson in the photo.
Because the tie he had on was the birthday gift I’d given him this year.
The suit and shirt were my birthday gifts to him from last year.
How pathetically funny.
Grayson picked a fight with me and then went straight over to Chloe’s place.