My finger hovered over my phone.I knew what I was about to do, and I hated myself for how familiar the impulse felt.I typed before I could second-guess myself.
There are consequences for breaking the rules.
I’m ready to surrender, serve, and obey you.
This wasn’t born of trust.It was surrender born of fear, and I knew he’d hear the difference.
I hit Send before I could talk myself out of it.
And then I waited.
Seconds stretched into minutes.Minutes dragged like hours.I kept my phone face-up on my desk, staring at it between meetings, between sips of coffee I barely tasted.
Nothing.
My chest tightened, my thoughts spiraling faster with each unanswered minute.By lunchtime, I was barely holding myself together.
For the first time, it occurred to me that the silence wasn’t about making me wait.
It was about refusing what I’d offered.
I pressed my fingers to my temples, breathing slowly, deliberately.Why did I love him this much?
The answer came instantly, cutting through the doubt like a blade.
Because he was Creed.
Because he had never failed me.Not once.
Because while I flailed and let fear dictate my choices, he had remained steady.Unwavering.Certain.
And now his last words echoed through me, sharp and unforgiving.
I told you I protect what’s mine.
It’s a shame you didn’t believe me.
I dropped my head into my hands, my breath shuddering.“I’m sorry.”
"Are you talking to me?"
I jerked, my head snapping toward the door.
Sierra.
She stood there, her perfectly arched brow lifted in amusement, eyes gleaming with something just short of satisfaction.She leaned against the frame, exuding confidence, draped in a rustic-brown colored dress that clung to her curves like it had been custom-molded to her body.Radiant.Unbothered.Smug.Everything I wasn’t in that moment.
I straightened in my chair, forcing myself to breathe, to smooth out the cracks in my composure.“No,” I said, my voice barely scraping together enough strength to sound normal."Just thinking aloud."
Sierra smirked, stepping inside with a deliberate ease that made it impossible to ignore her.She didn’t sit.Of course, she didn’t.Instead, she took up space, positioning herself near my desk like a model mid-photoshoot.
She wanted this moment.Needed me to see her basking in it.
Fine.Let her have it.
“I just came to tell you in person that I’ve resigned,” she announced, her tone light but soaked in significance.
The words pulled me from my haze of self-pity, snapping me back into the present.I blinked, straightening further, my attention sharpening.I hadn’t seen that one coming.
