After His Public Engagement, I Resigned Chapter 04

After His Public Engagement, I Resigned Chapter 04

Racing to finish Isabelle’s files kept me at the office until eleven.

I opened my phone to find she’d posted an update—a photo of herself in a wedding gown, hand tucked into Desmond’s.

[Building a life with the one I love,] the caption read.

I hit like without a word and closed the app.

Back home, everything in the apartment that carried a trace of him and me together suddenly felt unbearable.

I opened my suitcase and packed away everything that was mine.

At least this place would hold no more of me.

Watching the suitcase fill up, I felt an odd wave of relief.

Six years together, and in the end, this was all there was to show for it.

I was leaving the next day.

Desmond was busy with wedding preparations with Isabelle and, unsurprisingly, didn’t come home that night.

Fine by me.

On my last day, I got to the office early.

A coworker grabbed my arm, practically vibrating.

“Margot, guess what I saw in Mr. Ashcroft’s office just now?”

“An engagement ring! Matching bands. They don’t waste time, do they.”

“No,” I said. “They really don’t.”

Six years of mine, and I’d never gotten one.

I gave a few flat responses and went to find whoever needed my signature.

Passing the hallway, Desmond blocked my path.

I tried to sidestep him, pretending not to see him, but he pulled me hard into his arms.

“Still upset with me?”

I pushed against him. “Have you lost your mind? This is the office.”

He spread his hands. “So?”

“If someone sees, I’ll simply say you came on to me. I’ve got nothing to lose.”

I bit down every insult crowding my head.

No wonder I was the one people mocked at work.

Seeing my silence, his tone softened, unusually so.

“I’m heading to the family estate tonight. Some things need handling. I won’t be home.”

I turned my face away, fighting to keep my voice steady.

“Whether you come home isn’t something you need to report to me anymore.”

His expression darkened instantly.

A long silence, then: “Fair enough.”

“This necklace—I was going to give it to you. Doesn’t look like you want it.”

“Go dig it out of the trash yourself, if you care that much.”

He turned and threw the necklace straight into the garbage bin.

Watching his back, I laughed bitterly.

So this was the difference between the fiancée and the mistress.

Isabelle got a hand-picked engagement ring. I got a necklace tossed in the trash like it meant nothing.

Once the handover was done, I threw away everything in the office that belonged to this company.

Before leaving, I checked the balance on the bank account he’d set up for me.

Over the years, in scattered transfers, he’d sent me nearly five hundred thousand dollars.

Six years of my life, priced out.

I found Hopewell House—the children’s home that had taken me in years ago when my parents had no use for me—and donated every last dollar.

I finally exhaled.

Everything that had ever belonged to him, cleared away for good.

On my way out of the city, I looked back one last time at the place that had trapped half my life.

No more hiding. No more caring what anyone thought.

I’d never needed their approval.

I needed it even less now.