4: 4
I looked at him and said, one word at a time, "Too bad. That trash can's already been taken away."
Then I turned and walked off without looking at him again.
Behind me came his anguished, ragged cry.
My steps didn't slow for a second.
Back in my office, I shut the door and couldn't stop shaking.
Anger, hurt, and something else underneath it, a sadness I couldn't quite name.
I grieved for the three years of love that had died.
And I felt sorry for Ferris too.
He was like a child who never grew up, forever chasing what he couldn't have, never knowing how to treasure the person right in front of him.
My phone rang. It was Godfrey.
"Come down. I'm outside your building."
I pulled myself together and went down.
Godfrey's car was parked at the curb.
When he saw me, he got out and handed me a warm iced latte.
"You don't look well. Drink something warm."
I took it, and the warmth spread from my palms all the way in.
"Thank you."
"Bad day?" he asked.
I nodded.
"Because of your ex?"
I looked at him, surprised.
He smiled a little. "It was all over the company forum just now."
I felt a stab of embarrassment.
"Want to go somewhere to clear your head?" he offered.
"Where?"
"A hilltop."
He drove me all the way up to a hill on the edge of the city.
Night fell, and the city lights below glittered like a river of stars.
The evening breeze carried off the knot in my chest.
We stood side by side, neither of us speaking.
A long while passed before Godfrey spoke.
"I went through a failed relationship once too."
I turned my head to look at him.
"She was my college classmate. We were together five years. In the end, for a better future, she went abroad and married a man twenty years older than her."
His tone was calm, like he was telling someone else's story.
"Back then, I thought I'd never get past it. But later I found out time really is the best cure."
He turned and looked at me, his gaze gentle.
"Fiona, you're wonderful. You deserve someone better."
In that moment, my heart skipped a beat.
I looked into his deep eyes and saw my own reflection in them.
I think I was a little moved.
Godfrey and I grew closer, in a quiet, unspoken understanding.
He picked me up after work every day, and on weekends he took me to art exhibitions and concerts.
He drew me into his world, a world full of art that I'd never touched before.
With him, I felt a lightness and happiness I'd never known.
I started looking forward to seeing him every day, to getting his messages.
I knew I was climbing out of the shadow of the past.
The project moved along smoothly, and soon it was near the finish line.
Godfrey attended the celebration dinner as the partner company's representative.
At the table, he took a good many drinks in my place.
By the time it ended, I was a little tipsy.
Godfrey steadied me and drove me home.
The alcohol magnified everything. Leaning against him, I suddenly felt so wronged.
"Godfrey."
"Mm?"
"Am I really that awful?"
"Why would you ask that?"
"Then why didn't he want me?" The tears came before I could stop them.
Godfrey stopped walking, cupped my face, and wiped my tears away gently with his thumb.
"You're not awful. He's blind."
He lowered his head and kissed me.
The kiss was light, soft, with a soothing note to it.
I didn't push him away.
Maybe it was time to say goodbye to the past for good.
The next morning, when I woke up, Godfrey had already made breakfast.
Sunlight spilled in through the window, and everything felt a little unreal.
"You're up?" He came over carrying a glass of milk. "Come eat."
I looked at him in his apron and couldn't help smiling.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing."
After breakfast, I got a call from Sandra.
She was shrieking on the other end. "Fiona! You're in the news!"
"What news?"
"Look at the finance section headline yourself!"
Puzzled, I opened it, and there was the headline, stark and plain: 【James Group Falls Into Financial Crisis, on the Brink of Bankruptcy】
The photo showed Ferris looking wretched, mobbed by reporters.
I froze.
James Group was the company Ferris's father had built from nothing. It couldn't compare to a giant like Gilbert Group, but it had a decent name in the industry.
How had it fallen into crisis so suddenly?
The news said James Group's cash flow had snapped because a major project failed, and on top of some earlier bad investments, they were now drowning in debt.
That project...
My heart jumped.
It couldn't be the plan I'd worked on before, could it?
Sandra said over the phone, "I heard it's because your plan was gone, so Ferris cooked up a new one himself, and it was a total disaster. Dragged the whole company down with it."
I held the phone and couldn't get a word out.
"Serves him right!" Sandra said, satisfied. "That's what he gets for cheating on you! Now look, the company's gone, his precious first love ran off with someone else, he deserves every bit of it!"
I hung up, my feelings tangled.
I hated Ferris, but I'd never wanted him to end up like this.
Godfrey came over and wrapped his arms around me from behind.
"What are you thinking about?"
He read my mind, and said softly, "Business is a battlefield. Survival of the fittest. It's completely normal."
"I know."
"He ended up where he is today not because of you, but because of his own stupidity and incompetence." Godfrey's tone was calm. "You don't need to carry any of it."
I leaned against him and nodded.
He was right. Why should I be responsible for his failure?
From the moment he chose to betray me, we were already even.
