"There is no us, Bailey. There never was. It was an arrangement. Nothing more."
I watch something break behind her eyes. The hope, the trust, the something that looked like love—it all shatters.
Good. Better now than later. Better when she can still recover.
"You're lying," she says quietly. "I can see it in your eyes. You're terrified, so you're pushing me away."
Damn it. She knows me too well.
"Believe what you want. But this is over."
"Fine." Her voice is cold now, matching mine. "If you want to play corporate, let's play corporate. What about my position at Williams Ventures?"
I've already thought about this. Already mapped out how to cut every tie.
"You'll be reassigned to Operations under Marcus Winters. Removed from all current projects. It's better if we establish professional boundaries."
She laughs, the sound sharp and wrong. "Operations. Under Marcus. The same Marcus who micromanages people until they quit."
I don't respond.
"You're firing me. Just say it. Stop hiding behind reassignments and corporate restructuring."
"I'm suggesting you'd be happier elsewhere."
"Happier." She shakes her head in disbelief. "You really think this is about my happiness? This is about YOU being comfortable. About erasing me from your life so you don't have to face what we had."
"Lottie will draft a severance package. Six months salary plus the full compensation for the arrangement. It should be more than enough—"
"I don't want your money."
"Be reasonable. That's a significant amount—"
"I don't want ANYTHING from you." Her voice rises. "Keep your severance. Keep your arrangement money. Keep all of it. I'd rather work a hundred minimum wage jobs than take a single dollar from you."
"You're being impractical."
"I'm being done with you."
She moves toward the door, but I'm not finished. I need to make sure she stays away.
"You earned that compensation. Don't let pride—"
"Pride is all I have left." She turns back to face me. "You took everything else. My job. My trust. Whatever future I stupidly thought we might have. So yeah, I'm keeping my pride. Because unlike you, I know the difference between having principles and just being a coward."
The words land like a physical blow.
"You're scared," she continues, her voice breaking now. "You're terrified that if you let yourself be happy, something will destroy it. So you're destroying it first. You're becoming exactly what you were afraid of becoming."
"I'm protecting you—"
"Bullshit." Tears stream down her face, but her voice is steel. "You're protecting yourself. From feeling. From risk. From having to trust someone enough to let them in."
She's right. God help me, she's right about everything.
But I can't stop now.
"Believe what you want, Bailey. This is over."
