The million-dollar deal was dead, and for the first time, Caleb turned his fury on me. In front of the entire office, he tore me to shreds. When we got home that night, his tone was cold and clinical. “At work, there’s no room for personal feelings. You screwed up. It’s your fault.” My phone buzzed. It was a text from his new favorite intern, his junior from college. Clara, I’m so, so sorry. It’s all my fault the deal fell through. Caleb bought me a cupcake to cheer me up—it’s actually really good. Should I order one for you? The next morning, Caleb mechanically scraped the breakfast I’d made into the trash. “How many times do I have to tell you? I don’t eat breakfast.” Later at the office, Brenda from the next cubicle leaned over, a conspiratorial glint in her eye. “That new intern has some nerve. She actually went up and talked to Mr. Hayes this morning. Even brought him a coffee and a bagel. And you know what? He not only ate it, he told her it was good.” I was so done. Forget it. On my phone, another man was still trying his best to poach me. “Hey, if all else fails, I’m not above being the homewrecker. Say the word.” I pressed my lips together. No need for that, I texted back. You’re getting a promotion. 1 One second, I was handing my resignation letter to HR. The next, I was being summoned to Caleb’s office. The moment I walked in, a cup of coffee hit me square in the chest. The force of it felt like a slap to the face, stinging my skin. Over on the leather sofa, a woman was crying, her eyes red-rimmed, the picture of pitiable innocence. “Caleb, please don’t blame Clara,” she sobbed. “It’s my fault. I was responsible for that deal falling through, too. I’m the one who should be leaving, not her.” Caleb’s voice was thick with a rage I rarely saw him display. And it was, once again, because of Jenna. “Is this because I criticized you yesterday? Are you trying to pressure Jenna by running to HR and threatening to quit?” he snarled. “You were her supervisor. Botching that deal was your responsibility. How dare you shift the blame onto her?!” “Do you have any idea what people in the office are saying about her now? They’re saying you couldn’t stand working with the ‘disruptive intern’ and that she drove you out! I want you to go out there right now and clear the air!” I thought he might actually be upset about his girlfriend of seven years leaving him. I should have known better. He was just worried that after I left, people would look down on his precious Jenna. Jenna sniffled dramatically, blew her nose into a tissue, and casually tossed the snot-filled wad onto the other end of the sofa. Caleb’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. After a three-second pause, he walked over, picked up the tissue with his fingertips, and dropped it into the trash can. I froze. A tight, sharp pain clenched around my heart and spread through my chest. In our second year together, we were at home watching Hachi: A Dog’s Tale. I was a wreck, sobbing uncontrollably, tears and snot everywhere. He shoved me out of his arms in disgust. “Sorry, I’m a germaphobe. You need to clean yourself up.” He then disappeared into the bathroom and scrubbed himself from head to toe, at least three times over, as if he’d just touched something contagious. A cold laugh escaped my lips. So, his germaphobia was selective. I took a long, hard look at Caleb. “I’m resigning because I don’t want to work here anymore. It has nothing to do with anything else.” He didn’t believe me. “Then why today? Why not yesterday or tomorrow? It has to be about the deal.” He took a step closer, his voice dropping to a low threat. “Clara, don’t you dare pull your petty little games on Jenna. If you do, don’t blame me for forgetting our history.” I sighed, feeling none of my usual desire to argue with him. When it came to Caleb, my emotions were like a sieve. They poured in and drained right back out. He had been there when the deal imploded. We were at the final stage, the client had all but agreed to our terms. Then Jenna burst in, insisting on personally toasting the CEO. The CEO was already visibly annoyed. But she acted like she couldn’t see it. A brand-new intern, forcing a CEO to drink with her—I still don’t know where she got the audacity. When the CEO lost his temper, I held her back and plastered on a smile, apologizing profusely. I told her to drink three shots as an apology, but she burst into tears, louder than anyone. “Clara, why are you doing this to me? Women shouldn’t tear each other down! Why do you always force me to do things I don’t want to do?” At the time, Caleb’s face was so dark he looked murderous. I thought it was because of the deal we’d just lost. I never imagined it was because I’d told Jenna to apologize. I was just so tired. “I’m not playing games, Caleb. Let’s break up.” Without waiting for his thunderous expression to change, I turned, gathered my things, and walked out of the company. Back at our apartment, I started packing. This was the downside of breaking up—so much stuff, it would take forever to pack. Suddenly, my hand froze. In the back of a drawer, I found a pair of red stockings that weren’t mine. They were torn to shreds, a testament to a very eager, passionate encounter. I tossed them into the trash, snapped a photo, and sent it to Caleb. My phone was already buzzing with his texts, full of explanations I didn’t bother to read. Instead, I dialed another number. “Didn’t you say you wanted a promotion?” 2 On the other end of the line, Wyatt was practically screaming with excitement. He offered to come help me move, but I turned him down. If Caleb saw him, I was afraid he’d start a fight. It was better to keep things simple. I had a condo on the west side of town. Once this month’s bonus came in, I could finally pay off the mortgage completely. I would finally have a place of my own. The thought warmed me, chasing away some of the chill. The doorbell rang. I thought it was the movers and opened the door to find Caleb standing there. For a second, I was so surprised I thought I was imagining things. Last year, my appendix burst. I was in so much pain I passed out. I called him, begging him to come home and take me to the hospital. His voice was ice. “I’m at work, Clara. You’re a grown woman. Can’t you dial 911?” But last week, when Jenna spilled some warm water on her leg at the office and yelped in pain, he had scooped her up in his arms in front of everyone and driven her to the hospital himself. He never left work early. Unless it was for Jenna. She was the exception to all his rules. I guess today I was lucky enough to be an exception, too. His eyes scanned the packed boxes, and a flicker of panic, barely perceptible, crossed his face. “What is this?! What are you doing? Are you trying to force my hand by threatening to break up?” “Didn’t you see my texts? I explained everything. Jenna left those here by accident. It was raining that day, so I told her to come up for some ginger tea. Her stockings got snagged, so she just changed before she left.” I narrowed my eyes, thinking back. That was the week before last, when I was on a business trip. I’d flown back into a torrential downpour and asked him to pick me up from the airport. He’d said he was working late and told me to get a cab. When I got home, I saw the half-finished mug of ginger tea on the coffee table. I thought he’d made it for me. Turns out I was just drinking someone else’s leftovers. Maybe the same thought occurred to him, because his expression turned awkward. “Don’t overthink it.” I shook my head, my face calm. “I’m not. It doesn’t matter anymore.” A strange look crossed Caleb’s face. He stared at me for a long time. Finally, his voice was raspy, testing the waters. “Why aren’t you angry anymore?” So he knew I’d been angry before. He just hadn’t cared. Instead, he’d always scolded me, called me petty, said I had a dirty mind that saw the worst in everything. I was about to tell him I was moving out when his phone rang. It was Jenna, crying hysterically on the other end, claiming someone was bullying her. Caleb shot me a furious glare and sneered. “So this is your game. Nice move, Clara.” Before I could figure out what was happening, he grabbed my wrist, his grip like iron, and hauled me out to his car. The car smelled of a woman’s perfume. It was the same scent Jenna wore. Dangling from the rearview mirror was a cute little monster keychain, the same one as Jenna’s profile picture. I hadn’t been in his car since I started working at his company. He’d said he didn’t want people to gossip, so we had kept our entire relationship a secret. The territory that had once been off-limits to me was now completely occupied by someone else. I no longer felt that familiar ache in my chest. There was only a dull sense of inevitability. The moment we arrived at the office, Caleb roughly yanked me out of the car. My heel twisted, and I fell to the ground. He acted as if he didn’t even see it, letting out a cold laugh. “What’s with the act?” He grabbed me by the back of my collar and dragged me into the building like a bag of trash. 3 He dragged me all the way to my old desk. My wrists and knees were scraped and bleeding. I was on all fours on the floor, like a stray dog. Caleb pulled Jenna into a protective embrace, his voice a low warning to the onlookers. “I don’t care who put you up to this, but this is still my company, not Clara’s. Bullying an intern is not acceptable.” “If you want to keep your jobs, you’ll show me where your loyalties lie.” Brenda’s face was white as a sheet. She stood frozen, not daring to move. She had already texted me on the way over. After I left, Jenna was assigned to her team. An intern who loved to slack off and cut corners—what good could she possibly be? She’d messed up a simple lunch order for a client, and Brenda had said a few words to her. That was all it took for Jenna to call Caleb and tattle. Jenna buried her face in Caleb’s chest, the two of them oblivious to the world. “Caleb, I don’t even know what I did… I just saw the client was a little overweight, so I ordered him a salad. And Brenda just started yelling at me…” Caleb stroked her hair, promising to get her justice. His cold eyes swept across the room. “I know Clara was good friends with many of you. You saw she left, and you wanted to stand up for her. But she left because of her own professional failure, because she was too ashamed to stay. It has nothing to do with Jenna.” “I’ll say it one more time. Show me you want to be here, or you can all get the hell out.” Everyone’s face paled. They all understood his ultimatum. Amy, a junior associate I had personally trained, walked up to me. She squeezed her eyes shut, whispered, “I’m sorry,” and slapped me across the face. Caleb stood there, unmoved. “And the rest of you?” A line formed. One after another, they stepped forward, slapping me. Some were people I had helped, others were people who had helped me… Blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. My head was spinning, my ears were ringing, and the world was starting to go fuzzy. Jenna let out a giggle. “Caleb, look at her. She’s so pathetic. She looks like a swollen pig.” Caleb’s eyes were like ice. His words were even colder. “Someone this manipulative, who only knows how to play office politics, doesn’t deserve to be in our company.” “Her resignation is denied. She’s fired. And this year’s bonus is forfeited. It will be transferred to Jenna.” My eyes widened in disbelief. Rage, like a spider’s web, spread through my body, trapping my heart. “Caleb! I earned that! On what grounds?!” Company policy was to calculate bonuses based on the projects each person landed. From negotiations and drafting proposals to closing the deal and haggling with clients, I had done it all myself. To secure one more percentage point, I had drunk until the early hours of the morning. That bonus… that was the money I was going to use to pay off my mortgage. My parents divorced when I was young. Neither of them wanted me. They passed me back and forth like a soccer ball. I was left with my uncle, whose wife hated me. She was always threatening to kick me out if I didn’t behave. As a result, I grew up with a deep-seated fear of having nowhere to go. After I got with Caleb, I clung to him desperately, terrified he would leave me. I had to know where he was at all times. But even the most passionate love can be extinguished. I started putting my faith in money. I would use it to buy a house of my own. That way, if Caleb and I ever broke up, if he kicked me out, I wouldn’t be homeless. I worked like a madwoman, scraping together a down payment. All these years, I had scrimped and saved to make the mortgage payments. The stress was immense. I was losing hair, finding gray strands far too early. Caleb saw it all. He knew exactly how much this bonus meant to me. But now, his voice was mocking. “On the grounds that I own this company. And on the grounds that you bullied Jenna. You owe her this as compensation!” The words were stuck in my throat. A wave of nausea churned in my stomach, rising up my esophagus. A fifty-thousand-dollar bonus. He handed it over to an intern who had done nothing, just like that. I gritted my teeth against the dizziness as Caleb’s security guards threw me out of the building. The moment I was outside, a text from him arrived. What happened today was your fault. When I didn’t reply, another one came through. Fine, maybe I went a little too far. But that was because you showed Jenna no mercy. She’s my junior, after all. When you let people bully her like that, of course I’m going to get angry. I’m leaving for a business trip tomorrow. To France. That new bag you wanted is launching there. How about I buy it for you to make it up to you? He didn’t know that just a minute earlier, Jenna had already posted on her Instagram story. “Someone’s pulling some strings and taking me on his business trip, just because I said I wanted to see the Eiffel Tower~ Such a good boy~” I blocked them both without a second thought. A week later, Caleb returned from his trip. He held the new designer bag in his hand, a nervous feeling churning in his gut. He had planned to be gone for three days, but Jenna had dragged him from one sight to another, and he had completely forgotten to let Clara know. He’d come back today hoping to surprise her. The thought of Clara waiting for him at home warmed him, and he quickened his pace. He pushed open the door, calling her name twice. Silence. The boxes Clara had packed were gone. Everything that belonged to her was gone. Caleb’s breath hitched. His face went white. An unbelievable thought clawed its way into his mind. 4 A massive wave of panic washed over him. “No…” He knew how much Clara cared about him. Over the years, she had brought up marriage more than once. When a woman does that, it means she’s decided to spend her life with you. That’s why Caleb had always seen her as a sure thing. He never worried she would leave. All he had to do was say the word, and Clara would drop everything to meet him at the courthouse. Where else could she go? She had cut ties with her parents long ago. She was in touch with her uncle occasionally, but she knew his wife didn’t like her, so she would never go there. What about that small condo she’d bought with her down payment? Caleb’s eyes lit up for a second. He grabbed the bag and drove towards the west side of town. But when he got there, he stopped. Where was her condo? He didn’t know. A flash of annoyance crossed his face. He’d never thought she would actually move into that little place, so he had never bothered to learn the address. She had asked for his opinion when she was buying it, but he had just glanced at the brochure and said he didn’t know. And now, he had no way of finding her. It was only when he was driving that he realized Clara had blocked him on social media. He had no idea when she had done it. He hadn’t messaged her all week. Had she done it because she was jealous? He couldn’t be sure. He pulled out his phone and called her. The robotic voice of an AI operator that answered sent a jolt of pure panic through him. He had never dreamed that she would actually block him on everything. His mind flashed back to her face in his office that day, her calm expression as she’d said they should break up. He finally realized she had been serious. Caleb felt a thick rope slowly tightening around his chest, suffocating him. He clutched his shirt, squatting on the sidewalk, gasping for air. “Clara…” He was about to call in a favor to find her address when his phone rang. Wyatt’s triumphant voice filled his ear. “Caleb, I’m getting engaged. My girl just said yes.” “We’re having a party tonight. You should come.” A throbbing pain started in Caleb’s temples. He could hear the gloating in Wyatt’s voice, but he was in no mood for an engagement party. “I have something to do, I can’t…” But the man on the other end seemed to have anticipated his refusal. “You have to be there. You’re looking for someone, right? Come, and I’ll help you find her.” Caleb ignored the uneasy feeling in his gut and agreed. He didn’t know Wyatt that well—they’d just been classmates in college—but he knew Wyatt was the youngest son of the wealthy Nash family. He had resources. Finding one person should be easy for him. That evening, Caleb had planned to go to the party alone. But Jenna had somehow heard about it and insisted on coming along to “see the world.” After a moment’s thought, he agreed. I watched with amusement as Wyatt, like a peacock in full display, tried on five or six different suits in front of me. “Which one looks best?” I thought for a moment. “They all look good.” “Why did you have to invite Caleb?” Wyatt looked a little flustered. He quickly came over and took my hand. “You heard that? Are you mad? I’m just so happy…” I shook my head, smiling as I linked my arm with his, and we walked out together. The moment we entered the ballroom, a pair of eyes locked onto me. I followed the gaze and saw Caleb, trembling, all the color drained from his face. Under the bright lights, he looked like a ghost that had just been pulled from the water.
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