I'd worked toward the design director position for three years, only to have it handed to the junior protégée the general manager parachuted in.
He said, "You're getting older. Your creativity and your energy can't keep up with the younger ones. It's time you stepped aside."
I argued my case. "But every major project this company has landed, I led to completion!"
"Those were resources the company gave you! They don't prove your personal ability!"
"Abraham Delgado! You know perfectly well that—"
"Winona Sullivan! Call me Mr. Delgado! Inside this company I'm not your husband, I'm your superior! I'm asking you to cooperate with the company's personnel reassignment!"
Agatha Mason stepped in to smooth things over. "Abraham, maybe I really should just let your wife have it."
Abraham didn't correct what she'd called him. If anything, his tone softened.
"Company matters aren't a game of pretend. I've already notified HR. It can't be changed."
"Settle into your seat. Anything you don't understand, I'll teach you."
But when he turned to me, his voice went bitterly cold.
"The projects that belong to you, you'll keep handling. When they're done, just submit them to Agatha for approval."
Which meant I'd still do the work, and Agatha would pluck the fruit.
I looked at the face of this man, married to me for five years, my colleague for eight, and suddenly I laughed.
"No need. I'm resigning right now."
The design director title and the position of Mrs. Delgado—I wanted neither.
——
When I went back to my desk to write my resignation letter, Abraham followed.
"You've been here eight years. Don't throw away everything you fought so hard for over a moment of spite."
"You're not some kid fresh out of school. Do I really have to spell this out for you?"
So he did know how hard-won everything of mine was.
And yet he'd handed the fruit of it to someone else with his own hands.
My eyes stung, but my hands didn't stop typing.
"Mr. Delgado, it's working hours right now. Please don't meddle in your employee's private life."
His breathing grew heavier. Aware of the faint glances around us, he lowered his voice.
"Do you have any idea? At your age, you go out and interview now, you'll be cut in the first round!"
"Don't be so naive!"
I pulled the resignation letter out of the printer and signed it without hesitation.
"Mr. Delgado, will you approve it?"
His face dark, he took it.
"Winona, do you really have to push this all the way?"
"I'm not pushing anything. I just don't want to do this anymore."
"There are several projects that still need you to wrap up. If you just leave like this, what's Agatha supposed to do?"
Only then did I understand. It wasn't that he didn't want me to resign. He wanted me to pave the road for his little protégée first, then go.
I opened my email and sent the resignation straight to Abraham and HR, both copied.
"Can you approve it now?"
"I assume Mr. Delgado wouldn't want me to go explain to HR in person that you're blocking me over a personal relationship?"
I knew the thing he hated most was mixing the personal with the professional.
Eight years, and he never once let me walk into his office alone. Anything he needed, he came straight to my desk to tell me.
Even when I wasn't feeling well, he never let me ride to and from work in his car.
When I worked into the dead of night and forgot to eat, he'd rather text me to pick up the delivery at the front desk than bring me a single bite himself.
For the longest time I never thought anything of it.
Business was business, private was private—that was the rule we both lived by.
It wasn't until Agatha arrived that I understood. Some principles aren't unbreakable. It just depends on who they're for.
She could eat in the cafeteria with him. She could leave her personal things in his office.
He could introduce her openly as his protégée and ask everyone to look after her.
But no one could be allowed to know I was his wife.
