THIS IS NOT REAL ANYWAY

SALEM’S POV

“Drop me off here, Mr.… um, Atlas,” I said, toying with my fingers.

Even now, I still could not believe that I was now Mrs. Knight.

What the actual fuck?

But Atlas had not said anything about telling anyone about our marriage. And honestly, I did not blame him. I did not even understand yet why he wanted to get married to me in the first place, but it was happening—scratch that, it had already happened.

“What are you talking about, Salem?” he asked.

I shrugged. “You probably don’t want anyone to know that the two of us are together right now, and the two of us arriving at the office together is not a good look. You are my boss; we have to be professional.”

“You…”

I quickly interrupted him. “It’s alright, I don’t feel any type of way, so there is no need to explain yourself to me. I understand why you may want to hide the fact that we are married—”

“Salem…”

“This is not real anyway,” I said, pointing between the both of us.

As soon as those words left my mouth, his face hardened, and it seemed like his eyes had turned cold, freezing the atmosphere with his change in mood.

I could not move, I could not blink—hell, I could not even breathe properly.

He turned to his driver. “You can stop now, Norman.”

“Yes, boss.”

The car came to a stop almost immediately, and Atlas turned to me. This time, there was an emotion behind his eyes that I could not quite decode, no matter how much I tried.

“You can step out now, Salem.”

My throat was dry. “H-huh?”

“You said you wanted to continue the rest of the journey on your own, didn’t you?”

“Oh, I’ll just… I will get out now.”

I awkwardly got out of the car, and he did not even spare me a second glance or even a goodbye at the very least before he just sped off.

Some husband he was.

The rest of the walk back to the office was uncomfortable. I could not stop thinking about everything. In the blink of an eye, my entire life had suddenly just tilted on its axis. So much had changed, and I had not even had time to catch my breath.

But the second that the office building came into view, I realized that I had bigger fish to fry.

According to Ben, Marilyn was angry with me, and I was sick to my stomach thinking about what she would do.

I couldn’t lose this job…

I heard claps behind me, and when I turned to see the source of the sound, of course it was Ben Strafford.

“The woman of the hour has arrived.”

I turned to him. “I told you that it was an emergency,” I said calmly.

He laughed. “You don’t understand your situation, do you?” he asked. “You did not take official permission before you left, and because of you, there was an error in the deed.”

My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. “How can that be? I already made sure everything was in order before…”

“Stop making excuses, Salem! You left, and now our biggest deal has gone to shit!” he shouted.

“…”

He smirked and moved closer to me until he was completely in my personal space. He reached his hand out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. “But I can help you get out of this mess, Salem. You just have to let me…”

I snatched his hand away and stepped back from him, my eyes glaring daggers in his direction.

“I don't know what language I can use to tell you this, Benjamin, but I am not interested in you,” I said.

He laughed wickedly, nodding his head. “Then I will be the first to wish you goodbye, Salem, and I can assure you that you won’t be missed.”

I smirked. “With how confident you are, Benjamin, one would think you have any real power in the office,” I snapped. He had finally managed to find a way to get on my last nerve.

“You bitch…”

“What?” I asked, pointing at him. “The only reason you can even talk right now is because you are stuck so deep up Marilyn’s ass. Nothing but a lackey, that’s what.”

“You are dead meat!” He stormed off, bumping his shoulder roughly into mine.

It was only after he had gone off that I could finally panic.

If I was not sure about losing my job after everything that had happened so far, now I was definitely dead meat.

All because I could not keep my big mouth in check.

I placed my hand on my chest, trying to catch my breath, and when I realized that I could not stand outside any longer, I finally forced myself to walk in.

There was an obvious fact that I was not really the favorite person in this office, and it was once again obvious from the way that they began side-eying me and murmuring things as I entered.

I ignored them. So much time had passed now, and I was used to it.

The one person who actually liked me here was…

“Babesssssss!!!”

My eyes widened. “Rejoice, Shh!”

She rolled her eyes and still waved me over. “Come here.”

Rejoice was my best friend… The two of us had been completely inseparable since she tripped me on purpose in the park when we were both six years old, and then she beat up those who laughed at me.

It was the ultimate enemies-to-lovers story.

I rushed to take my seat beside her.

“I am so fired, Rejoice,” I said.

“Nothing is going to happen, Salem, just relax… the boss is not that irrational,” she said, and I arched my brow at her.

“Are we talking about the same boss?”

She laughed. “Alright, I understand what you are saying, but you are not getting fired, Salem.”

I blew raspberries. “I hope so.”

“Okay, bitch, enough play talk. What took you so long?” she asked.

I brought out the marriage certificate, and her eyes became as wide as saucers. “I was getting married.”

“Holy fuck, Salem, you got married—”

I rushed and covered her mouth with my hand. “Stop talking.”

“Shhhhh!” Kimberly, one of the members in our office, said with so much hostility in her tone, and typical Rejoice just flipped her off.

“What? How? To whom?”

I considered not telling her the truth, but Rejoice was my best friend. I could not hide things from her; I was not good at it anyway. Besides, I was already too far gone to go back now.

“Say something, Salem. What did you do?”

“I got married to the boss.”

“Our fucking boss?!” My hand was around her mouth again.

“Seriously, Rejoice, shut up.”

This girl with her big mouth—she was going to put me in a lot of trouble.