He Sacrificed My Career for Her—Then I Resigned Without Looking Back Chapter 13

The settlement took two weeks.

Graham was as thorough as ever. He put the apartment’s remodel receipts, the appliance purchase records,

our shared living expenses, and a few large transfers I’d made to him into a spreadsheet and sent it to Helen.

Helen read it and raised an eyebrow. “This guy’s genuinely annoying as a lawyer. He made a breakup

settlement spreadsheet that’s almost impossible to find a mistake in.”

I was reviewing new Everstone evidence, and I looked up. “Is there a problem with the numbers?”

“No.” She handed me the file. “If anything, he counted too much in your favor.”

“Send the extra back.”

Helen studied me for a few seconds. “Seriously?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t try to talk me out of it. She only circled a few items with her pen.

“These don’t have full receipts, but they have transfer notes and purchase records, so you can take them.

This last line for emotional damages, he added that himself. Cut it.”

I looked at that line. The amount wasn’t small. The note next to it only said: [What I owe you for all these

years.]

I crossed the line out. A lot of what he owed me didn’t have any way to be paid back anymore,

On the day we confirmed the final amount, Graham didn’t ask to meet again. He sent an email and copied both lawyers. It was formal, and the terms were clear. I read it and replied to confirm.

When the payment notification popped up, I was in a team meeting in the conference room. Miles saw my phone light up and looked down at once, pretending he hadn’t noticed.

I turned my phone over and kept going. “If the other side insists on producing the original, we’ll request a forensic exam and add questions about the chain of custody. Miles, you’re going to recheck every corporate filing change Summitcrest made three years ago.”

Miles groaned. “Ms. Kane, am I going to make it out of here alive tonight?”

“Depends on how fast you check.”

The team laughed.

Helen pushed the door open and rapped on the table. “Everstone just called. The other side withdrew that

supplemental agreement.”

The conference room went quiet for a second, and then it exploded with cheers.

Miles tossed his pen on the table. “So does that mean I get to live?”

I looked at him. “You get to live long enough to check another file.”

He clutched his chest. “The legal market in Southport is brutal.”

Right then, Tara called me on video. She’d stayed at my old firm and was working litigation under Lucas now.

When I picked up, it was chaos behind her, like she was in the break room. “Ms. Kane, I heard the other side

withdrew their evidence in the Everstone case!”

“They did.”

“That’s amazing!” She was so excited the camera almost flew out of her hand. “Lucas says your strategy for

challenging their evidence saved everything. He also says he’s coming to Southport on business next month,

and he wants to take you to dinner.”

“Tell him to bring you.”

Tara blinked, and then her eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes. Didn’t you say you still had questions about your briefs?”

She’d barely started to grin when her face fell. “Ms. Kane, now that you’re gone, I’ve realized getting yelled at by you was actually kind of great.”

Miles overheard and stared at me in shock. “Ms. Kane, you run a long-distance tough-love program too?”

I took his files away. “You’re checking one more company tonight.”

The whole room laughed again, and Tara laughed on the video call too.

After we hung up, I got a text from Graham.

Graham: [Congratulations on Everstone.]

I looked at it for a while, then wrote back.

Me: [Thank you.]

He didn’t send anything else. That was the last time we ever texted.

A month later, there was a legal forum in Kingsbury. Helen had a case come up at the last minute, so she sent me in her place. The forum was being held at a hotel near my old firm.

When I got to the venue, the woman at the check-in table handed me my name badge. It read: [Iris Kane, Meridian Counsel, Southport]

I pinned the badge to my suit jacket, and as I turned around, I saw Graham standing a little way off. He saw

me too.

People streamed back and forth between us, half a room apart. He didn’t come over, and I didn’t go to him.

That morning, he and I were put on the same roundtable panel.

When the moderator brought up the Everstone case, she smiled. “You’ve both worked on this case. Mr.

Whitmore can speak from the original firm’s side.”

“Ms. Kane can speak from the current team’s side. It’s a great chance to talk about the boundaries of taking

over a client in a complex commercial dispute.”

A few people in the audience looked up, ready for a show.

Graham took the mic. “Ms. Kane is better suited to answer this one. She’s in charge of the next stage of

Everstone, and she led the whole transfer process. In terms of both her skill and her professional

boundaries, she handled it beautifully.”

The room went quiet for a moment. I turned to look at him.

Graham set the mic down and kept his eyes on the table. He didn’t look at me.

It was the first time he’d ever acknowledged my ability in public without hiding me behind anyone. It had

come too late, but I took it.

The moderator passed the question to me. I picked up the mic and talked about the transfer process, the conflict check, handing over the files, and making sure the move reflected what the client actually wanted.

My ten minutes ended, someone in the audience asked a question, and the conversation moved on to other

cases.

After the forum, Graham was waiting for me at the end of the hallway. This time, he didn’t come close. He only spoke when I walked past him. “Ms. Kane.”

I stopped. He’d switched to calling me Ms. Kane, and he didn’t stumble over it once. “You were great up

there.”

“Thank you.”

He nodded. There were two steps between us.

Back when we were this close, I could always smell the faint cedar on him. Now the hotel hallway was full of perfume from the air fresheners and the smell of coffee, and it covered everything.

Graham said, “I’m leaving next month for a year-long fellowship abroad.”

“That’s great.”

“Brooke moved to another city. I’ve set up long-term care costs for her mom. After this, we won’t be in touch

anymore.”

I didn’t comment, and he didn’t wait for me to.

He took a small box out of his bag and held it out to me. I didn’t take it.

He explained quickly, “It’s the silver scale keychain you left in Kingsbury. I had it repaired and put it on a new chain. If you don’t want it, I’ll take it back.”

I looked at the box. A few seconds later, I took it. “Thank you.”

Something lit up in Graham’s eyes for a moment before he pushed it back down. “Iris, take care of yourself.”

I put the box in my purse. “You too.”

That was our goodbye. There was no hug and no argument, and neither of us dragged the past out to go

over it one more time.

I stepped into the elevator. Before the doors closed, Graham stood at the far end of the hallway and gave me

a small nod.

The elevator started down, the floor numbers ticking by one by one.

When I reached the lobby, Helen called. “Are you done yet? A new case came in down here, and the client

asked for you by name.”

“Send me the files.”

“You just got out of a forum, and you’re not going to rest?”

“I’ll read them in the car.”

She laughed on the other end. “Fine, Ms. Kane. Welcome to the Meridian grind, officially.”

I rolled my suitcase out of the hotel. The wind in Kingsbury was drier than in Southport, and it stung my cheeks a little. Cars streamed past at the curb, and the glass towers reflected the evening light.

My phone buzzed again. Linda had sent a photo.

The jasmine at home had bloomed again, and Tom stood beside it, making a very stiff peace sign. There was

a line of text underneath.

Mom: [What do you want to eat when you get home? Your dad says he’ll go shopping.]

I bent my head and typed.

Me: [Barbecue ribs.]

Once it went through, the driver pulled up in front of me. I opened the door and got in, and the small box in

my purse bumped lightly against my laptop with a soft click. I didn’t open it.

The car pulled away from the hotel and merged into rush hour traffic. Outside the window, Kingsbury slowly

slipped away behind me.

I opened my laptop and clicked into the new case files Helen had sent.