As Richard's threat lingered in the air, the entire office slipped into a heavy, stretched silence.
He kept his gaze locked on Brynn, fully expecting his stern warning to push her into admitting she had crossed the line.
For five long years, regardless of the circumstance, she had always bent to his will without question. That history was the reason he felt so certain she would never follow through with resigning.
In his mind, others might walk away from him. But not Brynn. She wouldn't. She simply wouldn't.
But the flustered apology he waited for never appeared. Instead, Brynn lifted her chin slightly, a quiet smile touching her lips. "I've made up my mind," she said in an even tone as she set the resignation letter on his desk. "If we're finished here, I'll take my leave."
She pivoted toward the door right after speaking, not granting Richard another look. Every step she took was firm and certain, as though she had already detached herself from this place.
Richard froze in disbelief. Out of all the reactions he had imagined, this had never crossed his mind.
Wasn't she the one who should be pleading for him to keep her? Wasn't she the one who should be rushing to explain that she only acted out of frustration? Wasn't she the one who always soothed his temper the moment it flared, just as she had done so many times before?
He had no idea how she could change so abruptly or so completely.
"Brynn!" he called out the instant her hand touched the doorknob, his voice edged with urgency and something dangerously close to fear.
He expected her to pause. He expected her to look back. But she didn't.
She opened the door with steady resolve.
Right outside, Jerold had been pressed against the doorframe. He lost his balance and lurched forward, nearly falling into the room. His face reddened as he said, "Uh… I was just about to come in and look for Richard..."
Brynn glanced at him briefly, offering a restrained nod before slipping past him. She walked toward her workstation with a firm and unbroken stride. Her figure looked slight, yet it carried a resolve stronger than he had ever seen in her before.
Richard stood rooted in place as Brynn walked away without once looking back. A tight, unfamiliar pressure twisted in his chest, stronger and heavier than anything he had felt before.
Jerold rubbed the back of his neck, glancing between Brynn's fading silhouette and Richard's icy expression. He attempted a weak smile. "Hey, Richard, I was just coming over to talk to you..."
"Shut up!" Richard snapped, the words cutting sharp as his breathing grew uneven. He had never allowed himself to fall apart like this.
Seeing that something was seriously wrong, Jerold shut the office door in a hurry to block the curious stares from outside. After taking a few steps toward Richard, he let out a weary sigh. "Can't you talk to her nicely? You know how she is. If she actually leaves, how's this firm supposed to keep running?"
Richard cast him a frigid look, his tone edged with a hint of defensiveness he didn't intend to show. "You heard her clearly, didn't you? She was the one who pushed for a resignation!"
Jerold stared at him in disbelief, unable to wrap his mind around it.
Resignation? That had to be a joke. Brynn walking away from the law firm? Walking away from Richard? No one would buy such a notion. How could she ever bring herself to leave?
When Jerold came to himself, he finally asked, "Why did you have to go that far? Saying she shouldn't even think of coming back? Isn't that basically a threat? She was only upset. You could've eased the situation. Why push everything to the edge?"
"Enough!" Richard yanked at his tie in frustration, yet the tightness in his chest refused to go away.
For the first time, he recognized something unsettling beneath that emotion. It was anxiety.
He didn't understand any of it. Hadn't he always found Brynn clingy and exhausting? Hadn't he wished she would stop leaning on him so much? Now that she finally had it, why did it feel like he couldn't breathe?
......
At her workstation, Brynn surveyed the space that had seen her through so many long days and late nights, and a strange sense of calm washed over her.
She pulled open a drawer, uncovering the small objects tucked inside.
A faded movie ticket from their very first date, even though Richard had spent nearly the entire showing answering work messages on his phone.
A simple metal bookmark that he had tossed her way after a business trip, claiming it was merely something a client had handed him.
A box of chocolates, warped and sunken from age. His assistant had handed them out to every woman on Valentine's Day, and she had been one of them.
There was also a single fruit candy, its wrapper rubbed thin. He had given it to her long ago when her stomach ached, and her blood sugar had dipped, pulling it from his pocket with an irritated frown.
Every small thing had once held meaning for Brynn. She had kept them as if they were priceless. Now, they struck her as almost absurd.
She let out a faint pull of her lips, gathered the items together, and dropped them into the trash can.
The gentle clatter sounded startlingly loud in the stillness of the office. Her coworkers looked on without a word, unsure what to say.
Brynn placed the last of her personal belongings into a small box, then surveyed the office that had absorbed so many years of her devotion.
The certificates on the wall marked the cases she had fought for. The rows of plants she had selected and tended to at each desk. Even the coffee machine in the break room she had chosen after listening to everyone's tastes.
This place had carried five years of her devotion and affection, but the moment had finally come to let it go.
Without looking back, she walked away, her figure slipping into the elevator within seconds.
The doors eased shut, closing off every lingering stare behind her.
......
Inside his office, Richard stood near the tall window, his posture straight but unnaturally tense.
Although an urgent email waited on his screen, his eyes kept drifting toward the door, unable to settle on the words before him.
The weight in his chest kept growing, as if someone had set a stone on top of his lungs.
Jerold released a weary sigh as he approached. "Richard, you've really messed up this time. Brynn wasn't bluffing."
Richard's brows pinched together, and a faint, dismissive smile tried to hide the unease beneath. "She's just putting on a show. She'd never leave me."
"That was before everything fell apart. This is about the wedding!" Jerold said in frustration. "What woman can stand being left behind on her wedding day? On top of that, I saw her packing for real. She wasn't playing around. She gave away everything she kept here, like she was cutting every tie to this place... and to you."
Richard pressed his lips into a thin line as Brynn's steady, indifferent gaze replayed in his thoughts, deepening the unease curling in his chest.
He searched his memory for the last time she had truly been furious, yet all he recalled were the countless moments she forgave him quickly, no matter how he acted.
"She wouldn't really stay mad at me..." Richard muttered, sounding as if he needed the reassurance himself. "Anyone else might walk out. But Brynn wouldn't..."
Jerold shot him an exasperated look. "That was the old Brynn! People change when they're pushed aside over and over. Listen, go buy her a gift and apologize properly. If you're lucky, she might cool down."
Richard didn't answer right away. Apologize? He had never lowered himself like that. And how was he supposed to choose a gift?
He dragged a hand across his forehead, irritation tightening his features. "I don't know what to buy. You go pick something for me."
Jerold stared at him in disbelief. "Richard Yates! A sincere apology means doing it yourself. You can't just—"
Before he could finish, Richard's phone began to ring.
He lifted a hand to silence Jerold and took the call, his voice slipping back into its usual composed and businesslike tone. "Hello, this is Richard speaking..."
Jerold could only shake his head as he watched the transformation, the earlier panic neatly hidden behind a polished front.
He drifted toward the window and caught sight of Brynn stepping out of the building with a box in her arms. Her slim figure blended into the flow of pedestrians until she disappeared completely from view.
A faint jolt went through Jerold's chest. For some reason, a troubling certainty settled over him. This time, Brynn might actually be gone for good.
Back inside the office, Richard continued talking to the client with perfect steadiness, his tone smooth and controlled, as though nothing had unraveled moments earlier.
However, Jerold noticed his free hand tightening and loosening over and over again, betraying everything his voice tried to hide.
