The next morning when I arrived at the Hamilton Enterprises, the office felt colder than usual.
“Lavina” Alexander’s commanding voice ordered me from inside our joint glass cabin, cold and detached like he was the boss and I was a mere employee, like he wasn’t the man who had once kissed me, held me in his arms.
When I stepped inside he didn’t bother to look up from his phone or ask me to sit.
“Close the door.” Only then did he lift his eyes. Cold unreadable.
“Lavina, I will keep this brief.” he said, standing with a rigidness that made the room feel even smaller.
"People are starting to talk and frankly, I can’t afford to have my reputation dragged down by you. As of this moment, you are fired from your secretary position. Don't bother showing up at this head office again. Starting tomorrow, you will report to a different branch...far away from here."
He paused looking at me with distant eyes.
“Stephanie will take over as my secretary.”
The atmosphere chilled as I stood frozen without being able to utter a single word.
His words felt like a dagger was being pushed in my heart.
This was the firm I helped Alexander build from scratch.
When the lead investor laughed at his pitch, I chased the old man in a torrential downpour. For Alexander to have one more chance for presentation I worked as a free slave in the inverstor’s company for one long year, ran errands for him like a dog and kneeled infront of his office for an entire night, just for one single chance.
I never asked for credit and neither claimed any shares when the company went successful, instead I worked five shifts a day for three years without a break, even when I was sick I refused to take rest, all because I wanted to lesson my husband’s burdens.
And yet he did not even think twice before throwing me away.
At one time I felt he kept our marriage secret to keep me safe from jealous slanders from media houses but only now I understood, he never felt any emotion for me in the first place. Alexander’s love has always belonged to Stephanie.
“Lavina…you have enough experience to work anywhere but think about your sister, Stephanie is fragile and her husband just died so she needs support, in return I will-”
“Alright.”
The room stilled.
The rehearsed excuse crumbled mid-air.
“That’s all? Aren’t you mad?” Alexander blinked somewhat taken aback.
His hand tightened around the velvet box in his hold that he meticulously prepared.
Last night he had ordered a customised diamond pendant with our initials on it, a present to lessen the blow, like a bone to the dog.
“If that is all, I will take my leave.”
“Lavina…what do you mean? Aren't you going to ask me anything?”
He expected me to cry and beg to remain by his side, to be angry that I was being sacked and my calmness made him open his mouth in protest.
At that moment the door burst open without a knock.
“Alex! I have sorted your documents, do you need me to bring anything else… Oh! Sister Lavina?”
Stephanie’s voice rang with artificial sweetness, all doe-eyed innocence as she stepped inside, oversized bag swinging.
CRASH
The sound was piercing.
A music box with a ballerina kept on my smaller desk hit the floor and splintered open. A soft, broken melody spilled out before dying.
My breath caught in my throat as I looked at the broken porcelain doll on the ground.
The one Alexander and I had made in a pottery class together after I had a miscarriage. It had a hidden compartment, holding the sonogram picture of the child we never got to meet.
“Sister, I am so sorry, it was an accident..please don’t be mad-” Stephanie gasped fake tears escaping her eyes as Alexander rushed to her side.
“Why would she be mad at all?!” Alexander intervened.
“Lavina, why do you keep such useless junk by your side, what if Stephanie got hurt?!”
Useless junk?
The only thing that made me survive depression as I grieved the child I miscarried while Alexander returned to work the next day was junk?
I sank to the floor, hands trembling slightly as I picked up the cracked porcelain. One jagged edge sliced into my finger cutting deep.
Blood dribbled down but Alexander did not see me.
“Steph, you are cut.” Alexander whispered, lifting her hand to examine a small scratch on her wrist. “Come. Let’s clean this up.”
He didn’t take a second look at me.
Didn’t notice the blood running down my fingers.
He walked out, his hand on Stephanie’s back like she was a fragile doll made of glass. The door closed gently behind them.
I remained, sitting on the cold marble floor, the broken music box clutched against my chest , my blood soaked into a tissue and slowly I packed all my things, throwing away the unwanted memories.
The old plane ticket to Santorini Greece, where he first said I love you. Torn in half.
The rare Swiss watch I bought him? Still in my drawer. I left it, unworn and unwanted.
And everything else…all gone.
When Alexander returned fifteen minutes later, the cabin was hollow.
No faint perfume in the air. No messy post-its on the edge of the desk. No hum of my laptop screen.
Even the little cactus he used to tease me about vanished.
Just one thing remained.
A faint smear of blood near the leg of his desk.
He stared at it, still and speechless.
He stepped back, something rattling inside him.
Just as he turned to leave, I opened the door to retrieve the documents.
“Lavina wait!”
I paused, looking over my shoulder.
“This is temporary Lavina, this isn’t permanent. When the rumours die down…I will bring you back.” My lips curved and yet the smile didn’t reach my eyes.
“I waited for you long enough…it doesn’t matters.”
For my parents Stephanie was their beloved princess and for Alexander she was his one and only priority. Even when she choose someone else over him, he still hadn’t let go of her.
No matter how much I tried the outcome would not change.
I was about to leave when Alexander called me.
"Lavina...wait, there is an auction tonight and the organizers invited me." I was about to refuse, but he cut me off.
“You are still my subordinate. I can’t show up at something like that event without one.”
Alexander’s pressurizing gaze said that he would not listen to a ‘No.'
At last I just nodded recalling Damien message from last night.
In a month I was going to leave eitherways.
“Of course” I said coolly, voice devoid of emotion. “One last task.”
