The girls catch me not saying anything.
“But was he at least good to you? I know that sometimes divorce happens and stuff, maybe because of long distance and all of that, but like in the beginning it's a dream,” Mandy asks.
“Um, we… grew up together so yeah but anyway, like I said all in the past.”
I sodesperatelywant to change the subject.
“You're going to let that girl go online and start spreading all these rumors about you?” Tammy asks, outraged on my behalf.
“Who? Sarah? What is me going online and trying to set the record straight going to do? All I'm going to end up doing is getting more hate,” I tell her.
“I'm so confused as to why you're even getting hate in thefirstplace. I mean you both didn't work out,” Charlotte says.
“Obviously there's a piece missing here, like I said to you guys. And I think it's Sarah. Because we were trying to work out like…whenLincoln was married,” Mandy cuts in.
“I so swear to God Gabby that we didn't evenknowthat Lincoln was married. This is crazy,” Tammy says. “I’m still mad wejust now found out through the office rumours and online and stuff, through what people were saying that he had an ex-wife. I thought it was a rumor but then that whole thing happened at the restaurant and we saw the video of you being arrested, which is crazy girl.”
This is not how I want to be remembered, and I wonder if Sarah is still going around spreading rumors.
I want so badly to tell them what a piece of shit that woman is, but to do that would incriminate Lincoln, and that's one thing that hasn't gotten out to the public: the fact that he cheated and that's why our marriage ended.
Doing that would ruin his image and it would embarrass me. Even though he made me so angry, even though his righteous indignation made me want to throw sand in his face at times, after peeling back all the haze of anger, all I could see and all that remained was my love.
“Yeah that girl just has a really shitty mouth. She was just rubbing it in my face that I wasn't married to him anymore and that I messed up,” I say.
“Why did you mess up?” Tammy asks.
“I'm not paying you people to stand around there and gossip. We got deadlines to meet. We have work to do,” the CEO cuts in, causing everyone to jump and scatter.
Not me.
Tobias steps up toward me.
“Gabrielle,” he nods forward.
“Mr. Voss.”
The man passes by me stiffly, head held high.
Anyway, finishing up here, I head back to the elevator and find that the CEO is on it.
Why is he the only one on the elevator?
“Are you excited about the official release for Auralis?” I ask him.
He glances at me briefly. “Excitement is tempered by expectations. The market rewardsdelivery, not anticipation and excitement.”
I tilt my head slightly. “Sounds like you're not confident.”
He lets out a measured breath. “Confidence has nothing to do with it. True assurance comes from rigorous validation, not blind optimism. We've built something exceptional, but success hinges on our execution, Gabrielle. Flawless, repeatable execution.”
He turns his gaze fully on me, like he's measuring every word.
“We don't get there by gossiping and idly standing around on company time.”
Well then.
-??-
