Chapter 2

The first day back at work came a week after the holidays.

I pushed through the company doors, and the women at the front desk were huddled together. When they saw me, they couldn't hold the laughter in.

"She actually showed up?"

"Did you hear? At the engagement party she was down on the ground in the parking lot asking Mr. Carter for money, and security dragged her off. I watched the video."

"She acts so above it all. Six years with him and she thought she was the lady of the house. The real one comes home and she doesn't make a sound."

I didn't let any of it show and walked straight into HR.

The HR manager leaned back in her chair and looked me over.

She said, "We have your letter. It needs James to sign off. Go home and wait to hear. In your situation, don't expect a dollar in severance."

I nodded and walked out of the building.

It was getting dark, and the street was full of couples walking arm in arm, talking and laughing.

I walked alone down the road I had taken every day for six years.

My family was gone.

My job was gone.

And the man had never been mine to begin with.

Up ahead, a crowd had gathered outside a steakhouse.

"James, you can't weasel out of Truth or Dare. Say it."

They had pushed him into the middle of the circle, Vanessa on his arm, the two of them still in matching outfits.

His face went a little red. "All right. I'll say it."

He cleared his throat, looked Vanessa in the eye, and said it one word at a time.

"The person who matters most to me in this life is Vanessa Brooks."

He said it three times.

He got louder every time.

People walking past stopped to watch.

Vanessa leaned into his shoulder with a sweet smile.

Somebody egged them on. "You said it, so kiss her."

James stopped.

Vanessa made a show of waving them off. "Stop it. James gets shy. You're embarrassing him."

Before she finished, he bent down and kissed her forehead.

He didn't close his eyes. He looked at her with a tenderness I had never once seen in him.

A second later his ears went red, and he played it off. "The wind is bad. Block it for me."

Vanessa laughed and smacked his arm.

Whistles and applause went up around them.

I was standing less than sixty feet away.

The wind came down my collar and ground what was left of my heart into powder.

James walked with his head down and ran straight into me.

He looked up and saw my face.

He stopped where he was. "What are you doing here?"

I stepped aside for him.

I said, "Nothing."

I opened my phone and called a car.

The group behind me started up.

"Who is that? She looks familiar."

"That's the one who was down on the ground begging Mr. Carter for money at the engagement party."

"Is she following him? Check your wallet."

James didn't say one word for me.

Back at my apartment, I paid the fare on my phone.

The travel app pushed a notification onto the screen.

[Your flight from Pinevale to Thornfield is confirmed. Departure tomorrow at 2:40 PM. Please arrive at the airport early.]

I sent the screenshot to my contact at Horizon Group.

The reply came back in seconds.

[Ms. Evans, the team is ready. We'll meet you at the airport tomorrow. Welcome aboard.]

I turned my phone off.

Love was gone, but I still had a career ahead of me.

I picked up the packed suitcase and went for the door, because I didn't want another second in that place.

I pulled it open, and James was standing right there.

He frowned, shoved past me into the apartment, and saw the suitcase in my hand.

He asked, "Charlotte, where are you going now?"

Vanessa came in behind him, all concern.

She said, "Charlotte, don't read into it. James and I really are like family. Don't walk out over a misunderstanding. It only makes things worse."

I didn't have the patience for it.

I said, "James, we're done."

He froze, and then he looked at me like I had told him a joke. "Done? I had dinner with Vanessa, and you want to break up?"

He folded his arms and looked down at me.

"Charlotte, listen to yourself. I already agreed to the wedding. What else do you want?"

He still believed a wedding was enough to settle me.

I stood there with the suitcase and didn't move.

I said, "Move."

He stayed in the doorway.

Vanessa took a half step back, sent a quick message on her phone, then looked up and smiled at me.

She said, "Charlotte, calm down. You know James. He talks hard and he's soft underneath. Don't actually leave."

I ignored her. My phone buzzed.

It was an internal announcement from Summit Holdings.

[The board has appointed Ms. Vanessa Brooks as Group Vice President, overseeing the Brand Operations Center, effective immediately.]

She was Vice President.

I had given Summit Holdings six years, from intern to team lead, and I had run three core projects that all turned a profit. The best one came back at four times the investment.

I was a team lead.

Vanessa had been back three months.

She was Vice President.

I held my screen up in front of James. "Is this also to help her handle her family?"

He barely looked at it. "She's good at what she does. If you had half her ability, I'd promote you too."

Vanessa sighed on cue.

"Charlotte, I know this stings, but James didn't hand me the job. You know I got my management degree overseas, and now I can use it. He told me the company was short on people."

She sounded completely sincere.

But in six years at Summit Holdings, I had written every proposal, every plan, and every line of execution detail on those three projects myself.

The month before, backing up my drive, I had found that on two of them the author had been changed to Vanessa Brooks.

At the time, I put it down to a glitch in the system.

I asked, "James, who put together the plans for Suncrest Gardens and Lakeside One?"

He frowned. "Vanessa, obviously. She's been sorting those projects out since she got back. You didn't know?"

I smiled at him.

There was nothing warm in it.

I said, "I handed you those two last August and November. My name is on the documents, and the originals are still in the third drawer of your office cabinet."

He opened his mouth like he wanted to argue.

Vanessa got there first.

She said, "Charlotte, are you sure you aren't mixing things up? I brought the frameworks for both of those back from overseas. James handed you the execution. The concept was mine."

She said it without a flicker, then turned to him. "James, tell her, so she stops misunderstanding."

He looked at her, then at me, and chose to say nothing.

His silence was the answer.

I pushed the suitcase forward. "Move."

That time he moved.

But as I passed him, he said it low. "Go if you want. The IOUs and your pay, come to the office tomorrow and we'll sort it out."

He said it the way a man clears a small bad debt off the books.

Six years.

To him, I wasn't even worth a bad debt.