After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 05

After He Bought His Intern a $100K Bracelet Chapter 05 Demoted
I didn’t drag myself back to the office until early the next morning.
The second I walked in, I found a crowd of coworkers gathered around Chloe.
“Whoa, Chloe, who sent you those flowers?”
Chloe ducked her head with a bashful little smile and showed them off. “Who else? Grayson picked them out himself. He said the next stretch of work is going to run me ragged, so he wanted to spoil me a little.”
Then she spotted me, pushed to her feet, and called out with her chin held high.
“Well, well, Ivy. So you finally decided to grace us with your presence.”
With that, she hurled a thick stack of folders straight into my face.
“I’m ordering you to finish this and send it to me before ten this morning.”
My face stung where the folders had smacked into it.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Chloe tipped her head back, smug. “What do you think it means? You skipped work yesterday, so Grayson said you broke company policy and knocked you down to assistant. Every account you were running is mine now. From here on, you’re only fit to fetch and carry for me.”
Tears burned at the edges of my eyes.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. I’d missed exactly two days of work.
In that time, Grayson had demoted me to Chloe’s assistant and slid her right into my old job.
What gave Chloe the right?
I gripped the folders until my knuckles ached and marched straight to Grayson’s office.
“Where do you get off demoting me? These accounts are mine. I’ve run them for three years, and you have no right to just hand them to Chloe.”
Grayson only watched me from behind his desk, calm as anything.
“Ivy, I told you two nights ago. Apologize to Chloe, or you’re fired.
“She’s the only reason you still have a job. She went out of her way to plead your case, and instead of thanking her, here you are making a scene in my office.”
I stood there looking at the person I’d loved for four years, and something in my chest just caved in.
I let one corner of my mouth curl into a bitter sneer.
“Grayson, you make me sick.”
And he did. He’d stolen the accounts I’d spent three years holding together, then had the nerve to demand I apologize to Chloe.
The whole thing was almost funny.
I blinked hard against the tears welling up without my permission.
“Grayson, I don’t need your charity, or Chloe’s. I’ll hand in my resignation myself.”
I slammed the folders down on his desk and turned to walk out.
Just as my hand hit the door, Grayson called out to stop me again.
For half a second, I actually thought he was going to ask me to stay.
But the moment I turned back, he spoke like it cost him nothing.
“Go stay at your mom’s tonight. Chloe wants me to cook for her, so don’t come back to the apartment.”
The tears I’d been holding back finally broke loose and slid down my face.
I couldn’t believe it. Grayson hadn’t just forgotten that today marked four years since we got together.
He wouldn’t even let me set foot in the apartment we shared.
The reason was simple. Chloe wanted him to cook for her.
It was almost funny, and it left me feeling smaller and cheaper than I ever had.
I wiped away the tears sliding down my cheeks before I even realized they’d fallen. “Relax, Grayson. I’m not going to cling to you. And we’re done.”
With that, I slammed his office door behind me and walked out of the building.
That same day, I called Ethan to help me move.
But the person who showed up wasn’t Ethan.
It was Ethan’s best friend, the owner of my company, Sebastian Locke.