"I didn't notice earlier," Chloe said, her voice perfectly flat. "Why is my sister here in your office during working hours?"
Her question made Jereme's hand pause over the documents. As if to cover up his intense guilt, he grabbed his Montblanc pen and began aggressively signing his name on every single file without reading a single word.
"Ericka said she's been having terrible nightmares lately," Jereme lied smoothly, not meeting Chloe's eyes. "You know I've been doing a lot of physical and mental therapy sessions recently, so I know a bit about counseling. I was just having a brief session with her to help calm her nerves."
Before his ridiculous excuse even finished echoing in the room, he had already signed the last document.
Chloe sneered internally. She seamlessly gathered the freshly signed files, holding them against her chest. "Well then, please continue your 'therapy'. I have work to do."
Back in college, she had been his dedicated assistant when he was the student body president, organizing his events, writing his proposals, and summarizing his reports. Now, in the corporate world, she was the most dedicated, professional chief secretary in the eyes of everyone at E&C Holdings. Usually, when she handed Jereme files, he would at least skim them before signing. But today, he hadn't even glanced at them.
The resignation of a chief secretary required the CEO's signature. A divorce petition required his signature.
Chloe looked down at the two crucial documents, now bearing his flamboyant signature, and felt a complex wave of emotions. The sacrifices she had made over the past decade had truly been fed to the dogs.
She walked straight to the HR department and handed in her resignation letter.
The HR director was visibly shocked, but upon seeing Jereme's undeniable signature at the bottom of the page, he swallowed all his questions. "Ms. Burgess, we will immediately post a public listing for a new chief secretary. We'll have to trouble you for the transition period."
"The handover will take exactly one month," Chloe replied professionally. "If you can't find an external candidate by then, you'll have to promote from within."
She shook her head as she walked away. She knew exactly who in the company was actually capable of handling her workload, and it certainly wasn't anyone Jereme favored.
Returning to her desk, Chloe let out a long breath. The thought of no longer being entangled in this sickening relationship made her feel infinitely lighter.
Just as she booted up her computer, her phone buzzed with a new message. It was an address for an ultra-exclusive luxury high-rise on the Upper East Side.
"Fiancée, move in here," Blace's text read. "You are pregnant and require proper care. I will see you in exactly one month."
One month. Exactly the day her mandatory divorce waiting period would end. She was absolutely going through with this divorce.
Meanwhile, inside the CEO's office, Jereme sat frozen in his leather executive chair. His eyes were fixed on the door Chloe had just walked through, completely ignoring Ericka, who was repeatedly calling his name.
Chloe's swift, strictly business-like demeanor felt deeply wrong to him. Suddenly, Ericka's face appeared right in his line of sight, her expression twisted with annoyance at being ignored.
"Jereme, what are you thinking about?" she pouted.
He pursed his lips, taking a long moment to reply. "Nothing."
In the past, if Ericka had complained about feeling unwell, Chloe would have been far more anxious and attentive than he was. But today, Chloe hadn't seemed to care about Ericka's condition at all. She hadn't even looked at him for more than a few seconds. In all their years together, this was the very first time she had treated him with such absolute indifference. But his narcissistic brain quickly dismissed it, and his attention was easily pulled back to Ericka's whining.
Later that afternoon, Chloe returned to their shared suburban mansion. The sprawling house was filled with memories of their life together, but now, it all just felt suffocating. She instructed the maids to pack up all of her personal belongings.
"Ma'am, should we move these boxes to the storage unit?" one of the maids asked, gesturing to the designer clothes and jewelry Jereme had bought her.
"No. Throw it all in the trash," Chloe ordered coldly.
She sat in the living room, sipping a cup of Earl Grey tea. Beside her sat two modest suitcases—the only things she was taking with her. The tainted items belonged in the garbage. She had already instructed the driver to load the suitcases into the car, planning to leave as soon as she finished her tea.
Suddenly, the front door swung open.
"Sister, who told you to drink tea?" Ericka's shrill voice echoed through the foyer. "You're pregnant! You shouldn't be touching things that are bad for the baby!"
Ericka marched forward, aggressively reaching out to snatch the delicate bone china teacup right out of Chloe's hands. But Chloe's grip was steady, and Ericka failed to grab it on her first violent attempt.
Just as Ericka braced herself to yank it away forcefully, Chloe casually flipped her wrist, splashing the hot tea directly into Ericka's face.
Before Ericka could even scream, Chloe threw her hands up in an exaggerated gesture of innocence. "Oops. I'm so sorry, sister. My hand just slipped. Ever since I got pregnant, I've had absolutely no strength in my arms. I can't even hold a cup steady. Honestly, maybe I should just go to the clinic and abort this troublesome baby."
"No!" Ericka shrieked, her face dripping with brown liquid. To her, the baby was far more important than a splashed face. "Sister, a baby is a living life! You can't joke about something like that!"
