Tim nods with a malicious grin. “Judy doesn’t trust her—not after she hid their relationship and the AI debacle, which was a brilliant idea, by the way.”
Amanda lifts her chin, relishing his praise. That—that bitch!
“She’ll take our side,” Tim continues deviously, “I’m sure of it—and when she does, the promotion is as good as mine. Of course, I’ll recommend you as my replacement.”
How can these two be so completely, unapologetically vile? Not just garden-variety office politics but straight-up criminal masterminds.
A cocktail of fury and hurt swirls inside my chest, threatening to explode with each heartbeat. They’re trying to paint me as the villain while they parade around in stolen ideas—our ideas.
I need to stop this travesty before it goes any further. My feet start moving of their own accord, but before I can reach the front of the room, Jake steps onto the stage.
His expression is wound tighter than a spring, that easy confidence I find charming to this day visibly shaken. Something in my chest cracks seeing him like this—vulnerable in a way I never imagined possible.
Attempting to maintain his composure, he begins the presentation, but the atmosphere shifts immediately like someone cranked the air conditioning to arctic. Beatrice’s enthusiastic smile transforms into confusion, her sculpted eyebrows drawing together.
Judy, elegant and intimidating at the head of the table, leans forward in her chair. Her sharp gaze fixes on the screen, as baffled as Beatrice.
“This is the same presentation,” she says, cutting Jake off mid-sentence, her voice razor-sharp and echoing through the suddenly silent room. “What’s going on here?”
Jake freezes up there, glancing between the screen and Judy. The room buzzes with whispers as tension thickens.
I can’t let him take the fall. I won’t.
“It’s my fault!” The words just tumble out of me, desperate.
Every head in the room swivels toward me as the murmurs screech to a halt. My heart hammers chaotically as I walk toward the stage.
When I’m close enough for Jake to see my face clearly, I meet his eyes. “I’m sorry, Jake,” I say, my voice trembling. “For everything. For the way I’ve treated you, for not warning you sooner about what Tim and Amanda were planning.”
Confusion flickers across his face, but mercifully, he doesn’t interrupt.
Facing the audience feels like facing a firing squad, but I take a shaky breath and continue. “The idea for this campaign was mine. And I’m the one who leaked it to Tim’s team.”
The utter shock blossoming across Tim’s and Amanda’s faces offers minimal consolation considering I’ve just torpedoed my career into smithereens. “I…I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was angry—angry at Jake, at everything that happened between us. I wanted to hurt him for breaking my heart in the past.”
Judy rises from her chair, her expression a volatile mixture of disbelief and fury. “I’ve never been so disappointed in anyone in my entire life,” she says through gritted teeth. “You’re fired, Miss Lake.”
Tears blur my vision, turning the room into a watercolor painting. I walk off the stage, shoulders hunched.
The dull thud of a body falling to the floor stops me in my tracks. I whirl around to see Jake standing over Tim, who clutches his jaw where a trickle of blood escapes his split lip.
“I always knew you were trash,” Jake growls at Tim before turning to Judy. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I quit.” He then strides toward me.
“Jake, what are you doing?” The whole point of coming here was to save his career, not sink it along with mine.
He just smiles and says, “I’m done. I can’t work with people like them anymore.”
“But—“
“You asked me once how I ended up in marketing.” He takes my hand. “It was always your dream, and I thought it would somehow bring me to you if I entered your world. All I ever wanted was a second chance, and then you just left a note on my door.”
Lifting my hand to his chest, he places my palm flat against the steady thrum of his heartbeat. “This right here is yours; it always was. Nothing matters to me more than you. I never stopped loving you.”
The confession hits me with the force of a tidal wave, unexpected and overwhelming, washing away years of erected defenses in an instant.
My chest tightens with a peculiar ache, not painful exactly, but the sensation of something long-frozen beginning to thaw. Heat blooms beneath my ribs, spreading outward until I’m certain I must be glowing.
After all these years of convincing myself that anger was easier than longing, safer than vulnerability, the walls I’ve built crumble beneath the sincerity blazing in his eyes.
