The glass walls of my old office offered a perfect view of Jade sitting in my chair.
She leaned back, spinning slightly, a smug smile plastered across her face as she admired the framed contract on the wall. The government deal I'd spent two grueling months securing. My name used to be on the bottom line. Now, it bore hers.
"Nora's better suited for a support role," Elliott had announced during the all-hands meeting just ten minutes prior.
He didn't even look at me when he said it. He just handed my biggest client over to his new favorite, dismissing five years of my sweat and blood with a single sentence.
I stood in the hallway, my left wrist burning under the cuff of my blouse. The crescent-shaped scar there felt like it was glowing red-hot. Sixteen years ago, when Caleb was just an infant, his lunar phase went out of control. I slashed my own wrist, feeding him my calming blood, staying awake for seventy-two straight hours to keep him alive.
Now, my son sat in the corner of the conference room, holding up his phone. He was recording the entire humiliation.
"My dad's finally upgrading," Caleb typed, hitting send on a poll to his friends. He didn't bother hiding the screen from me.
I swallowed the bitter taste in my mouth, pushing open the door to Elliott's new office—the larger, corner suite I had helped him secure.
He sat behind his massive mahogany desk, typing furiously on his laptop. He barely acknowledged my presence.
"Did you need something, Nora?" he asked, his tone flat, entirely devoid of the warmth we once shared.
I reached into my bag and pulled out the printed resignation letter. I didn't say a word as I slid it across the polished wood surface.
Elliott finally stopped typing. He glanced down at the single sheet of paper, his jaw tightening for a fraction of a second before relaxing into an expression of mild annoyance.
"Really, Nora?" he sighed, picking up his pen. "You're throwing a tantrum over a reassignment?"
"It's not a tantrum," I replied, my voice steady despite the tremor in my hands. "It's a resignation."
He didn't argue. He didn't ask me to stay. He just scrawled his signature across the bottom line, the scratching of his pen echoing in the quiet room.
Then, he opened his top drawer and pulled out a small, pale blue sticky note. He slid it across the desk, right next to my signed resignation.
"The wedding is on the 15th," he said, finally meeting my eyes. "Jade wants you there. She thinks it would be a nice gesture. Closure, you know?"
A wedding invitation. Delivered on a Post-it note, right after he signed away my career.
My eyes flicked to the drawer he'd just closed. In my own desk, three floors down, sat the stub of a two-million-dollar cashier's check. The money I'd quietly slipped into his suit pocket five years ago to save this very company from bankruptcy.
I didn't reach for the sticky note. Instead, I pulled my resignation letter back toward me, folding it neatly and slipping it into my pocket.
"Changed your mind?" Elliott smirked, leaning back in his chair. "Good. We need you to handle the transition paperwork for Jade."
I reached into my bag again, my fingers wrapping around a thicker manila folder. I pulled it out and slapped it down on the desk, directly over the pale blue sticky note.
I kept my fingertips pressed firmly against the cardboard cover, leaning in until I was inches from his face.
"Before you commit to that date," I said, my voice dropping to a low, dangerous whisper, "take a look at the document you signed three years ago."
