Chapter 5 of Loving Her Was My Only Mistake

"Rosalind Sullivan, here's my promotion paperwork. Take a look and let me know if anything's missing."

Rosalind from HR flipped through the file, brow furrowing.

"Your department already submitted its promotion form."

"What?"

I froze.

"Director Mason said the intern, Mike Fox, was the main contributor on that project. She requested that the promotion slot go to him, that his probation be waived early so he could step up as supervisor."

Department supervisor. That was my position. Right now.

Samantha was taking my results, my work, and using them to pave a road for her ex.

My phone buzzed.

I looked down. A message from her.

【Mike covered for us on that mix-up, and clearing it up is going to be humiliating for him.】

【Let's just call this our way of making it up to him. Your promotion can wait.】

I stared at the screen, a boundless fury churning in my chest.

Fury at how shameless Samantha was.

And even more fury at myself, at how I'd once loved her so hard I lost myself, until she stopped taking my feelings seriously at all.

Not this time, though. This time I wasn't swallowing it.

Without a moment's hesitation, I reported the fraud in Mike's promotion paperwork.

Once it was confirmed the project had been completed by me alone, her paperwork was verified and thrown out in under half a day.

The whole time, Samantha kept sending me message after message. I ignored every one.

I looked at the notification on my computer screen: my promotion application, approved.

The breath I'd been holding finally left me.

I opened my phone. Samantha had sent one last message.

【Got it out of your system now? Come home early tonight, and don't drag this out any further. It doesn't look good.】

Even now, Samantha still thought I was just jealous, throwing a fit.

I tapped my finger and dropped her into my blocked list.

Then I went straight back to the hotel where I was staying for the time being.

The next day.

After the sales department's morning meeting wrapped up, I was held back alone to go over the details of my promotion.

But when I stepped out of the conference room, the whole office had a different feel to it.

People passing by looked at me like I was something filthy, dropping their heads and hurrying off.

Snatches of conversation drifted over, indistinct.

"That's the guy who was the homewrecker, moving in on someone's girl?"

"He seemed totally normal. You'd never guess he was that kind of person…"

A bad feeling crept up on me.

Back at my desk, I picked up my phone.

The work group chat was buried under a flood of messages from Mike.

【A certain supervisor, surname James, repeatedly harassed and hit on my fiancée.

When he couldn't get anywhere, he maliciously reported my promotion application. How does someone like that deserve to work at this company!】

People started guessing right away.

【Is it E.J.?】

【I kept wondering why he was a no-show at Director Mason's engagement party. Turns out he was too jealous to even eat.】

Dozens of screenshots, all cropped top and bottom.

Mike had deleted every reply Samantha had sent me, twisting it to look like I'd been harassing her one-sidedly.

To avoid any awkwardness, Samantha and I had never gone public with our relationship.

But plenty of people had been to Mike's engagement party. Whose side they'd take was obvious.

The thing had been snowballing for close to an hour, thousands of messages scrolling past.

And Samantha, the one person at the center of it, still hadn't come forward to deny any of it.

Those chat logs were even taken from her point of view.

I couldn't let myself dwell on it. I typed fast, trying to set the record straight.

A commotion erupted at the office door.

Mike shoved past everyone trying to stop him and strode straight up to me.

Before I could react, a fist drove hard into my face.

"You bastard, going after another man's fiancée, and you've still got the nerve to show up for work!"

Searing pain, my head spinning.

I clutched my face, dazed for a long moment before I came back to myself.