A split second of panic passes and then a sense of peace washes over me. I know in my heart that this is the right move. And the last thing I would ever want is for Damian to suffer because of me.
The HR office is just down the hall. I give her my notice, or lack thereof, and make arrangements for my last check to be mailed.
Now comes the hard part.
I go back to the office that I share with Trent and Danielle and tell them the news.
“I know it’s come as a surprise, and I never wanted to leave you guys stranded. I’m so sorry for that.”
“I can’t believe this. You can’t go,” Trent pleads.
“This is the worst news ever,” Danielle adds after picking her jaw up off the floor.
“Is it though?” I spin around to find Devin standing in the doorway. “I mean, maybe now he’ll bring the right people onto the marketing team instead of his little plaything.”
“Hey!” Trent exclaims. “Watch it. No one cares about your stupid rumors, Devin. We’ve all heard you spouting them off to anyone who will listen.”
“And for the record, the right person was promoted to the marketing team. Brielle turned the Heartland campaign around in a matter of twenty-four hours. What Brian and Kyle couldn’t handle in weeks.”
Devin sneers at the group of us. “She shouldn’t even be here. If her ad creative wasn’t brought back from the dead, she never would have met the deadline to getting that first campaign out. I should have known something was up then, when it showed up again almost instantly. No way you recreated that piece so fast.”
“The ad that was deleted from the network? The one that IT had to recover for me? That ad?” I spit out.
“How did you even hear about that? The only people who knew about it was the three of us, Mr. Edgerton, and the IT department,” Danielle says, gesturing around the table at us.
It’s obvious how he knows. The guilt etched on his face tells it all. “Don’t bother, guys. It doesn’t matter now anyway,” I tell him, spearing a long, narrowed look at Devin one more time. “It doesn’t surprise me that you would try to sabotage me. It isn’t like you could have come out on top based on merit.”
I hug Trent and Danielle and then stop in and see Rui and Erica before I leave. By the time I get to Damian’s office, he’s gone. The conference room door is closed, and even Louisa isn’t at her desk.
I know I made the right call, but a part of me wasn’t ready to give up on this dream just yet. I was having so much fun with the marketing team, being a part of the discussions and working with the others to turn the concepts into reality. It’s hard to walk away from that when I know that creative jobs are a lot harder to come by than accounting positions. But at least I know I’ll always have something to fall back on.
From excitement for new adventures to desperation for a paycheck that I haven’t even missed yet, my thoughts spin and bounce through my head the entire walk back to my apartment.
I pull out my phone to call Damian, like I’ve done a dozen times already. The board meetings are usually a few hours long, according to Damian, and I don’t want to bother him while he’s in there.
I have to admit, I’m a little nervous as well. What we shared between us was a secret, or at least it was supposed to be. But I threw it all out there with Rachel. Blew up our spot. Maybe I should have stuck with the lie. Denied the entire thing. It was only Devin’s word against mine—what would she have done?
It’s out there now though. Will Damian get in trouble anyway? Did I just ruin everything for him? For us? I pocket my phone again and turn down the alleyway. Only time will tell, I guess.
The sound of silence greets me when I walk into my apartment. Holly’s things have taken over the living room. Her dishes drying on the kitchen counter, a pan left to soak in the sink. It feels like I’m stepping into someone else’s home.
I change out of my work outfit and into a pair of sweats and a T-shirt, then collapse on the couch with Holly’s blanket.
It’s hitting me, now that I’m sitting in the quiet of my apartment in the middle of the day. I just quit my job. I am officially unemployed. With absolutely no plan.
I scroll through job postings for accountants online, each one more depressing than the next. I can’t bring myself to apply for them just yet. Out of curiosity, I search for marketing positions. Those aren’t much better. No one seems to be looking for the creative side of the business.
What a difference a few hours can make. This morning, I was walking on cloud nine, blissfully unaware that imminent danger was just around the corner. And now, I’m rotting away on the couch, a pint of cookies and cream ice cream keeping my unemployed self company.
I’m alerted to the sound of someone in the hallway a half second before pounding rattles my door.
“Brielle. Open the door,” Damian shouts. My heart is in my throat as I stare at the door. He sounds pissed. Like really pissed.
He bangs again.
“Open the fucking door, Brielle.”
I swallow down a wave of emotion. Not fear for my safety—I know that no matter how upset he is with me, he isn’t going to hurt me—but fear for my heart. I close my eyes and take in a deep breath.
