Chapter 3
The next morning I didn't go to the airport. I went to Summit Holdings.
Not to come back. To collect what was mine.
Walking in through the front doors, the receptionists looked at me the way people look at a show.
"Ms. Evans, your desk is cleared out. Your things are in a box at the front."
I said nothing and took the elevator up.
James was coming out of HR just as I got there.
Vanessa was with him.
She had the VP badge on her chest, a whole new outfit, and her hair done. Standing next to him, the two of them looked like a magazine cover.
The HR manager hovered with a smile. "Ms. Brooks, I had admin redo your office. Tell me if you need anything else."
Vanessa smiled, warm and perfectly measured.
She said, "You didn't need to go to any trouble. Simple is fine. James, wouldn't it make more sense to put my office next to yours? Easier to talk about work."
He tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You're my wife. Where else would you sit? Anybody with a problem can bring it to me."
Wife.
The word came out of him with no weight at all.
In six years he had never once used it on me, and even the word girlfriend came out of him sideways, like he was afraid of being overheard.
I walked over and held out my resignation letter.
"Mr. Carter, sign it."
Something in his expression gave for a second, and then he was all business again.
He took the letter, scanned it, and laughed once, coldly.
"Resigning? Charlotte, have you thought this through? Your grandma is sick and your savings are nothing. What do you take care of her with once you walk out?"
Vanessa nodded along.
"He's right, Charlotte. Don't do anything hasty. Your grandma comes first. If you leave, where does her treatment money come from?"
The HR manager flipped through her file and put in a word.
"Mr. Carter, Charlotte took bereavement leave a while back. Her grandma has passed."
The hallway went silent for two seconds.
His grip on the letter tightened.
He stared at me. "When? Why didn't you tell me?"
I thought about my grandma at the end, holding my hand and forcing out her last words.
"Sweetheart, this is my fault. I never should have let you go to that man."
I swallowed those words and looked at him. "Mr. Carter, I don't have to report my personal life to you."
Vanessa was about to say something when James grabbed my wrist and pulled me out of HR.
His grip was hard enough to numb my hand.
I twisted once, and he let go.
He pushed the letter back at me and dropped his voice. "Charlotte, don't do anything rash. Wait for me. We'll talk properly after work tonight."
Vanessa opened the door and came out. "James, your dad called. He wants you over there."
He looked at me, turned, and left.
He went fast, like he was getting away.
Vanessa stayed and blocked my path.
She said, "Charlotte, I'm moving into your office. Could you clear your things out today?"
The team lead's office and the VP's office weren't even in the same wing.
She didn't need mine.
She wanted me to hand it over with my own hands.
It didn't matter. I was leaving anyway.
I went back and packed the last of my things into a cardboard box.
There was a photo of my grandma.
There was a pen I had used for three years.
And there was a worn notebook with every project plan I had built in six years written into it.
I was bent over taping the box shut when somebody knocked.
I opened the door to a man in a suit holding a dark green jewelry case stamped with the logo of the most expensive custom jeweler in the city.
He was all smiles.
"Are you Mr. James Carter's partner? This is the pendant he ordered last month. It came off the bench today. Could you try it on so we can check the fit?"
That stopped me cold.
James had bought me something.
In six years he wouldn't buy me a five-dollar coffee without an IOU.
Word traveled somehow, and a few coworkers crowded in to watch.